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Personal Cloud

Share links

Since 0.6.0 Requires Cloak Proxy 0.6.0 or later.

Share captured requests, a saved session or a HAR file as an end-to-end encrypted link anyone opens read-only in a browser, with known secret formats redacted, a leak check, a password, expiry, view limits and a record of each open.

A share link sends a few captured requests to someone who doesn’t use Cloak Proxy: a colleague, a vendor’s support team, the developer of the API. They open the link in any browser and see the requests read-only, with headers, bodies and timing. Known secret formats are redacted before anything leaves your Mac (redaction covers common formats, not every one, so look over what you share), and the requests are encrypted with a key that only the link carries, so Subcloak’s server stores data it can’t read.

Share links are part of Personal Cloud: you need to be signed in, with a plan. Without one, Share Link… and the File menu’s share items are greyed with a gold star, and choosing one shows what Personal Cloud adds, with Export HAR Instead… where that helps. To show your traffic live to someone on your network without uploading anything, use Live sharing instead.

Section titled “Create a link”

  1. Select the requests to share in the traffic list, right-click them and choose Share Link….

    Or choose File › Share Session…. Its Shares menu offers the selected requests, the requests in the list (when a filter or the sidebar narrows it) and Everything in this session.

    To share a file you saved earlier, see Share a saved session or HAR file.

  2. Check the Name. Whoever opens the link sees it as the page’s title. It’s encrypted like the requests.

  3. Leave Redact known secrets on, or turn on Hide all body values: it hides every body, query, path and header value except a few headers that describe the message (Content-Type, Accept, Accept-Encoding, Accept-Language, User-Agent, Content-Encoding, Transfer-Encoding, Connection, Date), and keeps the method, host, header names, plain field names and the structure. Turn off Include request and response bodies if headers and URLs are enough.

  4. Read the leak check under the switches. See The leak check.

  5. Choose when it Expires and how many Views it allows.

  6. Optionally, tick Require a password and type one.

  7. Click Create Link. If the leak check found something, or a body was too large to check in full, Cloak Proxy says why and asks Share it anyway? before it creates the link.

The sheet says Link ready, copies the link to the clipboard and shows a QR code to open it on a phone or tablet. Send the link to the person who needs it. If you set a password, send it another way, such as a phone call or a different chat.

Options

Section titled “Options”
Option What it does Default
Name The title the recipient sees. The app selected in the sidebar, the host, or “Requests from Cloak Proxy”
Shares Which requests: the selection, the requests in the list, or everything in the session. Tunnels that weren’t decrypted aren’t included. What you selected
Redact known secrets (tokens, cookies, passwords, API keys and card numbers show as REDACTED) Replaces known secret formats and values under credential names with REDACTED before anything is encrypted or uploaded. It covers common formats, not every one. See Redaction. On
Hide all body values Hides every body, query, path and header value except a few headers that describe the message (Content-Type, Accept, Accept-Encoding, Accept-Language, User-Agent, Content-Encoding, Transfer-Encoding, Connection, Date); keeps the method, host, header names, plain-looking names (JSON keys, form, cookie and multipart field names, map keys, GraphQL operation and alias names, XML and HTML element and attribute names), protocol keywords such as form-data, base64 and HttpOnly, the app’s name (not its version) and the structure. Hidden values show as REDACTED, and so does the failure reason; the server address is dropped. Every path segment is hidden, a URL inside the path included. Keys that aren’t plain names show as REDACTED_1, REDACTED_2 and so on. Script and style content goes as a whole, and bodies with no structure to keep (plain text, binary, images, Protobuf, markup without an HTML or XML type, or markup that doesn’t parse cleanly) are left out, with their size shown only roughly. Use it when you’re not sure what a body contains. Off
Include request and response bodies Off shares URLs, headers and timing only. On
Expires 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days. The link stops working after that. 24 hours
Views Unlimited, Once, 5 views, 25 views or 100 views. Unlimited
Password Require a password. The recipient needs it as well as the link. Off

The line at the bottom of the sheet sums up what you’re about to share, for example: “Uploads 3 requests (URLs, headers, bodies and timing), encrypted with a key that only the link carries. It works for 24 hours, until you revoke it in Settings › Cloud.”

Links last up to 30 days and hold up to 100 MB each. Up to 50 links can be active at once, and you can make up to 20 links a day. If a link goes over a limit, the sheet says which one in words.

Share a saved session or HAR file

Section titled “Share a saved session or HAR file”

Choose File › Share File… and pick a saved session (.cloaksession or .cloak) or a HAR file (.har), or drop one on the sheet. You don’t need to open it first. Files can be up to 200 MB; for a bigger one, open it and share fewer requests with File › Share Session…. A Charles session needs opening in Cloak Proxy first.

The sheet shows the file’s size and kind, how many entries it couldn’t read (they’re left out), and the same options, leak check and Create Link as above. The file is read with strict limits, redacted and checked on your Mac like captured requests; nothing is uploaded until you click Create Link.

From the command line: cloakctl share --file SESSION.har.

The leak check

Section titled “The leak check”

Redaction replaces known secret patterns and values under credential names (Authorization, password, api_key and so on). The leak check is a second, independent look at what’s left, using different rules, so it can catch what redaction missed. It runs every time you change what’s shared.

The sheet says Meaning
No known secrets found. Redaction covers common formats, not every one: look over the requests before you share, or turn on Hide all body values. The leak check found nothing more that it recognises. It can’t recognise every format, so read the requests, or hide all body values.
N values still look like a secret after redaction (long random strings, or values under names such as key or code)… (orange) Something may have slipped through, with an example of where. Check before sharing. Deselect those requests, turn off bodies, or edit the requests first.
N bodies or messages are left out… Bodies Cloak Proxy couldn’t decode, and so couldn’t check for secrets (compressed with zstd, binary, damaged, or data after the end of an image), aren’t shared. The recipient sees a note in their place.
Redaction is off: headers and bodies are shared as captured… (orange) Everything is shared as captured, with how many possible secrets it found. Anyone with the link can read them.

Passwords

Section titled “Passwords”

A password is stretched on your Mac (PBKDF2, 600,000 rounds) and mixed into the link’s key. It’s never uploaded. The recipient’s browser does the same, so the server never sees it either.

  • A forgotten password can’t be recovered. Make a new link.
  • A wrong password doesn’t use up a view.
  • A password also protects the link if the page that opens it were ever changed to read the key in the link. See Security and privacy.

What the recipient sees

Section titled “What the recipient sees”

The link looks like https://subcloak.link/s/q8VZr3pXk2LmT9wY#Jd7N…. When someone opens it:

  1. Their browser downloads the encrypted requests and decrypts them on their own computer. If the link has a password, they see This link has a password first: “Ask the person who shared it for the password. It never leaves this browser.”
  2. The page, Shared requests, lists the requests with a filter box (Filter URLs, methods, status). Selecting one shows its headers, body and timing.
  3. A note at the bottom says: “Read-only. Shared from Cloak Proxy and decrypted in this browser: the server stores only encrypted data and never receives the key in the link.”

They can’t change or replay anything. Bodies over 512 KB show their first 512 KB.

A Copy menu on each request copies it as cURL, fetch or Python, its URL, or its response body. The commands are the same as Cloak Proxy’s own Copy as cURL and Copy as code for the request as shared, so redacted values stay REDACTED, and unusual characters are escaped so a pasted command can’t do anything else.

They see Why
This link has ended It expired, reached its view limit, or you revoked it. Or your plan has ended.
This link is incomplete The part after # is missing. They should copy the whole link.
This link doesn’t exist It was deleted, or the address is wrong.
This share can’t be opened The link is damaged, or the data was changed on the way.
That password isn’t right. Wrong password.
Section titled “Manage and revoke links”

Settings › Cloud › Share links (or File › Share Links…) lists the links this Mac made. Click Refresh to fetch the latest views.

Each row shows the link’s name and status, Active, Expired, View limit reached or Revoked, then how many requests, the size, the views (with the limit, if any), when it expires, and “not redacted” or “no bodies” when that applies. A lock means it has a password.

A second line shows the link’s activity, for example “2 of 5 views used, 3 left · last opened 12 minutes ago”, or “Not opened yet · up to 5 views”. Once a link has been opened, Opens lists each open, newest first, with how long ago it was and the country it came from.

  • The copy button (Copy the link) copies an active link again.
  • Revoke stops the link at once and deletes its encrypted data from the server. Confirm with Revoke.
  • Links made on another of your Macs show “not made on this Mac (no key here)”. You can revoke them, but not copy them.

The server counts views and records when and from which country each was opened (not the IP address). It can’t read link names or contents. Only your account sees a link’s opens: assistants and paired devices get the counts, not the list.

Share from an assistant or the command line

Section titled “Share from an assistant or the command line”

An AI assistant connected through the MCP server can create links with create_share_link, list them with list_share_links and revoke them with revoke_share_link. Every time an assistant, cloakctl or a paired device asks to create a link, Cloak Proxy asks you first.

The request shows who’s asking (“An assistant wants to create a share link”), the Name, the number of Requests, the Hosts and Apps, when it Expires, the Views, whether Secrets are redacted, whether Bodies are included, and the leak check. Show all N URLs lists every request. Click Create Link or Don’t Allow.

create_share_link takes ids (request IDs), query (a query such as host:api.example.com status:>=500) or file (the absolute path of a saved session or HAR file), name, expires (1h, 24h or 7d; default 24h), max_views and include_bodies. Links an assistant creates are always redacted and last at most 7 days.
Section titled “Related”
RedactionWhat gets replaced with REDACTED.
Live sharingShow traffic live on your network, nothing uploaded.
Publish to GistShare requests as a HAR, cURL or Postman gist.
Security and privacyHow link encryption works, and its limits.