Unable to SSH tunnel to hit private API

Hey all,

I have a server in a private subnet that is hosting a REST API on port 80 and a jump box in a public subnet that I would like to tunnel through so that I can invoke the REST API in the same execution with axios. When I run the command line command to tunnel everything works fine:

ssh -i "keypair.pem" -L 8081:<API HOST>:80 <JUMP BOX USER>@<JUMP BOX IP>

Once I run that command, as long as I keep the session open, I can hit the API through Postman/Axios. All good.

I am trying to do the same thing with this library, but the connection is not being exposed properly and I can't figure out why. Here is my code:

const ssh = new NodeSSH();
await ssh.connect({
  host: '<JUMP BOX IP>',
  username: '<JUMP BOX USER>',
  privateKey: `RSA KEY`
});
ssh.connection?.forwardOut('127.0.0.1', 8081, <API HOST>, 80);
const response = await axios.get(`http://localhost:8081/<ENDPOINT PATH>`);

The connection opens fine and I can exec commands as I want. This issue may be a result of using async/await as well, but I would like to stick using that model if possible.

Thanks in advance for the eyes and any ideas.

Start at ssh.connection?.forwardOut in the issue's example and compare its forwarding behavior with the command-line SSH tunnel. Check the node-ssh forwarding API and verify the localhost:8081 Axios request; done means the private API endpoint responds while the SSH session remains open.