Sessions and sharing
Save and open sessions
Save everything Cloak Proxy captured to a .cloaksession file with full bodies, and open it again later, on another Mac or alongside new traffic.
Captured traffic lives in memory and is gone when you quit or clear it. Save it as a session file (.cloaksession) to keep a debugging session, attach it to a bug report, or pick up where you left off. A session file keeps every request and response with full headers and bodies, so when you open it again everything looks the way it did when you captured it.
Save a session
Section titled “Save a session”- Choose File › Save Session… or press ⌘ S.
- Choose a name and folder. The suggested name is
Cloak Proxyfollowed by the date and time, such asCloak Proxy Oct 13, 2026 at 9.41 AM.cloaksession. - Leave Redact secrets: tokens, cookies, passwords, API keys and card numbers off to keep an exact copy, or turn it on if the file will be shared. See Redaction.
- Click Save.
Save Session always saves every captured request, whatever the main window’s filters and selection show. To save only some requests, select them and use File › Export › Cloak Proxy Session…, or right-click them and choose Export Request › Cloak Proxy Session…. See Export.
The Redact secrets checkbox remembers its last setting across saves and exports.
Open a session
Section titled “Open a session”You can open a session, a HAR file or a Charles JSON session in three ways:
| How | Details |
|---|---|
| File › Open Session… | Press ⌘ O. You can select several files at once. |
| Drag and drop | Drop .cloaksession, .har, .chlsj or .json files onto the main window. |
| Search Everything | Press ⇧ ⌘ A and choose Open Session, HAR or Charles File…. |
When a file opens:
- Its requests are added to the traffic list. Anything already captured stays. To see only the file’s contents, press ⌘ K (File › Clear Session) first.
- Each request gets a new number so it can’t clash with requests already in the list.
- Requests that don’t record which app sent them are listed under the app Imported: name, where name is the file name without its extension. Requests from a
.cloaksessionfile keep their original app. - The first imported request is selected.
If a file can’t be read, Cloak Proxy shows Couldn’t open followed by the file name and the reason, such as “This file isn’t a Cloak Proxy session, HAR, or Charles session”.
For HAR and Charles files, see Import.
What a session file contains
Section titled “What a session file contains”A .cloaksession file is JSON. At the top level it has:
{ "format": "cloak-proxy-session", "version": 1, "savedAt": "2026-10-13T09:41:00Z", "flows": [ ]}Each entry in flows keeps:
| Kept | Details |
|---|---|
| Request | Method, URL, scheme, host, port, path and query, HTTP version, every header and the body. |
| Response | Status code, reason phrase, HTTP version, every header and the body. |
| State | Whether the request completed, failed (with the error), or passed through as an undecrypted tunnel. |
| Timing | When the request started and when it finished. |
| Client | The app that sent it and the client’s address. |
| Decryption | Whether the request was decrypted. |
| Tools | The debugging tools that touched it, such as Map Local or Breakpoint. |
| WebSocket messages | Every message sent and received on a WebSocket connection. |
Bodies are stored exactly as captured (base64-encoded inside the JSON), including compressed bodies, so nothing is lost. If a body was cut at the body size limit when it was captured, the saved copy is cut too. See Network settings.
Not saved:
- Highlights and comments you added in the traffic list.
- Your debugging tool rules. Use Tools › Export Rules… for those. See Rules and matching.
- Insights results and alert history, which are recalculated from the requests.
Session or HAR?
Section titled “Session or HAR?”.cloaksession |
.har |
|
|---|---|---|
| Opens in | Cloak Proxy | Cloak Proxy, browsers’ developer tools, Charles, Proxyman and most HTTP tools |
| Bodies | Exactly as captured | Decoded, as text or base64 |
| Undecrypted tunnels | Kept | Left out |
| WebSocket messages | Kept | Left out |
| Tools applied | Kept | Left out |
Use a session to keep a complete copy for yourself or another Cloak Proxy user. Use HAR when the other person uses a different tool. See Export.
Save from the command line
Section titled “Save from the command line”cloakctl run --record session.cloaksession -- <command> records a headless run straight to a session file. Any extension other than .har writes a Cloak Proxy session. See Headless and CI.