Interface tour

Cloak Proxy does most of its work in one main window: a sidebar of apps and domains on the left, the traffic list in the middle, and an inspector for the selected request below it. Debugging tools, Insights, the API client and Settings each open in their own window. This page walks through every region so you know where to find things.

The main window

The main window has six regions, from top to bottom and left to right:

Region	What it’s for
Toolbar	Record and clear, capture status, search, tools, and buttons for the other windows.
Sidebar	Narrow the list to one app or one domain, and find apps that skip the proxy.
Banners	Prompts that appear above the list when there’s something to do.
Filter bar and traffic list	Every captured request, with filters on top.
Inspector	The selected request and its response, side by side.
Status bar	macOS capture, paused requests, active tools, counts and certificate status.

Drag the divider between the traffic list and the inspector to resize them. Cloak Proxy remembers the split. The window’s minimum size is 1000 × 600 points.

Closing the window keeps capturing

Closing the main window doesn’t quit Cloak Proxy: it keeps recording, and the macOS proxy stays on. Click the Dock icon to bring the window back. Quit with ⌘ Q to stop and restore your proxy settings.

Toolbar

Control	What it does
Pause / Record	Stops or resumes adding requests to the list (⇧ ⌘ R). Red while recording. See Pause recording.
Clear	Empties the traffic list (⌘ K).
Status pill	Shows the capture state and the address the proxy listens on, such as Capturing · 127.0.0.1:9090. Hover it for details.
Search	Opens Search Everything (⇧ ⌘ A).
Tools	A menu with Debugging Tools… and an on/off switch for each tool. See Debugging tools.
API Client	Opens the API client window (⇧ ⌘ O).
Insights	Opens Insights (⌥ ⌘ I).
macOS Proxy	Turns capturing this Mac’s traffic on or off (⇧ ⌘ P).
Devices	Opens Device & Runtime Setup for iPhone, Simulator, Android, Terminal and more.

The status pill’s dot and label show the state at a glance:

Pill	Meaning
Green, Capturing	The proxy is running and the macOS proxy points at it.
Yellow, Listening	The proxy is running, but only apps and devices you’ve configured use it. Turn on macOS Proxy to capture this Mac.
Orange, Paused	Recording is paused. Traffic still flows through the proxy.
Red, Not listening	The proxy couldn’t start, usually because the port is in use. Hover the pill to see the error, then change the port.

Sidebar

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The sidebar groups traffic by app and by domain.

1. All Traffic shows every request
2. Apps that sent traffic, with request counts
3. Apps that connect straight to the internet instead
4. Every domain seen, with request counts
5. Filter the apps and domains by name

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Part	What it does
All Traffic	Shows every request. The number is the total captured.
Pinned	Apps and domains you pinned with Pin to Top. Appears once you pin something.
Apps	Each app that sent traffic, with its icon and request count. A green open lock means SSL Proxying is on for that app.
Not Using the Proxy	Apps that connect straight to the internet, and apps you capture through DNS. See Apps that ignore the proxy.
Domains	Each host seen, with its request count. A green open lock means SSL Proxying is on for that host.
Filter apps & domains	Narrows the sidebar lists by name.

Click a section header to collapse or expand it. Right-click an app or domain to turn SSL Proxying on or off, capture an app that skips the proxy, mock a domain offline, pin it to the top, or copy its name. See Sidebar.

Banners

Two bars can appear above the traffic list:

• Trust the Cloak Proxy certificate to decrypt HTTPS appears until the root certificate is trusted. Click Install & Trust…. See Root certificate.
• When you select an app in the sidebar, a bar shows whether its HTTPS is decrypted, with Enable SSL Proxying for All Requests from the app or Disable SSL Proxying. See SSL Proxying.

Filter bar and traffic list

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The filter bar, traffic list, inspector and status bar.

1. Quick filter: choose the field and match mode, then type
2. Content chips: HTTP, HTTPS, JSON, Form, XML and more
3. The traffic list. Right-click a row for actions
4. Inspector header for the selected request
5. Status bar with the tools that are on

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The filter bar has a quick filter field (⌘ F), a menu to choose which part of the request it searches and how it matches, a button for multiple filters and saved presets, and content chips: All, HTTP, HTTPS, JSON, Form, XML, JS, CSS, GraphQL, Document, Image, Media, Font, WebSocket and Other. Reset clears every filter. See Filtering.

The traffic list shows one row per request, with the columns #, a status icon, App, Method, Code, Host, Path, URL, Type, Req Size, Size, Duration and Time. Right-click a column header to show or hide columns. Right-click a row for copying, Repeat, Edit and Repeat…, Save to API Client, Tools, Highlight, comments, SSL Proxying, export, Publish to GitHub Gist… and Remove. See Traffic list.

When the list is empty, it shows Waiting for traffic, and a Capture macOS Traffic button if the macOS proxy is off.

Inspector

The inspector shows the newest selected request. Its header line shows the method, the full URL, the status, the duration, the response size and the app that sent it, plus a ⋯ menu with Copy URL, Copy as cURL, Copy Request and Copy Response.

Below the header, the request is on the left and the response on the right, each with its own tabs. Drag the divider between them to resize. For an encrypted tunnel, the inspector explains that the connection was passed through and offers buttons to turn on SSL Proxying. With nothing selected, it reads Select a request to inspect it: use ↑ and ↓ to move between requests. See Inspector.

Status bar

Item	What it shows
macOS traffic: On / macOS traffic: Off. Click to capture	Whether this Mac’s traffic is captured. Click to switch. While it changes, it reads Updating macOS proxy….
Recording paused	Appears while recording is paused.
N paused at breakpoint	Requests waiting in the Breakpoint window. Click to open it.
Tool chips	One chip for each debugging tool that’s on, such as Map Local. Click a chip to edit that tool’s rules.
N requests / N of M requests	How many requests are captured, or how many match the current filters.
N selected	Appears when more than one row is selected.
CA trusted / CA not trusted	Whether the root certificate is trusted on this Mac.

Other windows

Window	Open it with	What it’s for
Debugging Tools	Tools › Debugging Tools… (⌥ ⌘ 0), the toolbar Tools menu, or a status bar chip	Rules for Breakpoint, Map Local, Map Remote, Scripting, Block List, Allow List, Network Conditions, DNS Spoofing, No Caching, Mock Sets and Alerts. See Debugging tools.
Breakpoint	Opens by itself when a request pauses; Tools › Breakpoint Window	Edit paused requests and responses. See Breakpoint.
Compare Requests	Tools › Compare Selected Requests (⌥ ⌘ D) with two rows selected	A side-by-side diff. See Compare requests.
Compose	File › Compose Request (⌥ ⌘ N), Edit and Repeat…	Write or change a request and send it. See Repeat and Compose.
Device & Runtime Setup	Toolbar Devices; Proxy › Device & Runtime Setup…	Tabs for This Mac, iPhone & iPad, iOS Simulator, Android and Other. See Devices.
Insights	Toolbar Insights; Tools › Insights… (⌥ ⌘ I)	API catalog, security grades, secrets, performance, schema changes, timeline and alert history. See Insights.
API Client	Toolbar API Client; File › API Client (⇧ ⌘ O)	Collections, environments, tests, runner, mocks and every protocol. See API client.
Settings	Cloak Proxy › Settings… (⌘ ,)	Pages for General, SSL Proxying, Bypass, Certificate, Network and Advanced. Cloak Proxy remembers the last page you opened. See Settings.
Search Everything	Toolbar Search; Tools › Search Everything… (⇧ ⌘ A)	Find any action, tool, setting, window, API client item or captured request. See Search and command palette.

Search Everything finds actions, settings, windows and captured requests from one field.

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Menus

Cloak Proxy adds these items to the standard macOS menus.

File menu

Item	Shortcut	What it does
API Client	⇧ ⌘ O	Opens the API client.
MCP…	⇧ ⌘ M	Opens the API client’s MCP page. See MCP server.
Compose Request	⌥ ⌘ N	Opens the Compose window.
Open Session…	⌘ O	Opens a Cloak Proxy session, HAR file or Charles JSON session. See Save and open sessions.
Save Session…	⌘ S	Saves every captured request as a .cloaksession file.
Export		Exports as Cloak Proxy Session, HAR, CSV, Postman Collection or OpenAPI (YAML). Exports the selected requests when more than one is selected, otherwise all visible requests. See Export.
Clear Session	⌘ K	Removes every captured request.

Proxy menu

Item	Shortcut	What it does
Pause Recording / Resume Recording	⇧ ⌘ R	Stops or resumes adding requests to the list.
Capture macOS Traffic / Stop Capturing macOS Traffic	⇧ ⌘ P	Turns the macOS proxy on or off.
Device & Runtime Setup…		Opens the device setup window.
Repeat Selected Request	⌘ R	Sends the selected requests again.
Edit and Repeat…	⌥ ⌘ E	Opens the selected request in Compose.

Tools menu

Item	Shortcut	What it does
Search Everything…	⇧ ⌘ A	Opens the search panel.
Insights…	⌥ ⌘ I	Opens Insights.
Compare Selected Requests	⌥ ⌘ D	Compares exactly two selected requests.
Debugging Tools…	⌥ ⌘ 0	Opens the Debugging Tools window.
Export Rules… / Import Rules…		Saves your rules to a JSON file, or adds the rules from one to your current rules. See Rules and matching.
Breakpoint Window		Opens the Breakpoint window.
A switch for each tool		Turns that tool on or off.
Edit Breakpoint Rules…	⌥ ⌘ B	Opens that tool’s rules.
Edit Map Local Rules…	⌥ ⌘ L	Opens that tool’s rules.
Edit Map Remote Rules…	⌥ ⌘ M	Opens that tool’s rules.
Edit Scripting Rules…	⌥ ⌘ S	Opens that tool’s rules.
Edit Block List Rules…	⌥ ⌘ K	Opens that tool’s rules.
Edit Network Conditions Rules…	⌥ ⌘ T	Opens that tool’s rules.
Edit Allow List Rules…, Edit DNS Spoofing Rules…, Edit No Caching Rules…, Edit Mock Sets Rules…, Edit Alerts Rules…		Open those tools’ rules. No shortcut.

All shortcuts are listed on one page in Keyboard shortcuts.

Drag files onto the window

Drop a .cloaksession, .har, .chlsj or .json file onto the main window to open it. Its requests are added to the list. See Import.

Related

Traffic listColumns, sorting, colors, highlights and comments.

InspectorEvery request and response tab.

Keyboard shortcutsEvery shortcut in one table.

SettingsEvery settings page and option.