Capture HTTP(s) traffic with Proxyman

Cover Image for Capture HTTP(s) traffic with Proxyman

This tutorial is going to demonstrate how we can use Proxyman to intercept HTTPS Traffic from your macOS devices.

1. Download Proxyman

First of all, we must download the latest Proxyman at https://proxyman.io or update directly from your current version by navigating to "Proxyman -> Check for Update…"

2. Capture network traffic with Proxyman

There are three essential parts.

  1. Source List (Left Panel) is where all apps and domains are listed.
  2. Request List (Middle Panel): All requests/responses from the selected Source.
  3. Content (Bottom Panel) is where you can see all Request/Response content.

Home Page

As soon as you start the Proxyman, Proxyman would:

  1. Automatically override your HTTP/HTTPS Proxy in System Network Preference. It's super convenient for you since you can see the traffic immediately without doing anything.
  2. Prompt to install Proxyman Helper Tool.

We highly recommend you install the Helper Tools because you can gain the following features for free:

  • Automatically override HTTP/HTTPS Proxy with high performance. You can notice the bottleneck when opening Proxyman for the first time.
  • Gracefully revert the HTTP/HTTPS Proxy if the app is unexpectedly crashed.

3. Search and Pin your app/domain

You could quickly search your apps/domains by using "Ctrl+Shift+F" and then selecting the "Pin" in the right menu.

Home Page

We choose Product Hunt as the best example to demonstrate.

Home Page

Distraction-free is an integral feature of Proxyman since all other domains are entirely ignored. You won't get lost by the flooding of additional requests.

That's cool 👏

4. Decrypt HTTP/HTTPS Request and Response

To see HTTP/HTTPS Traffic in plain text from the ProductHunt app, please follow the following step:

  1. Select your desired domains or app on the Left Panel.
  2. Select Enable SSL Proxying for this domain or the entire app on Bottom Panel.

Home Page

By enabling SSL for particular apps or domains, Proxyman only intercepts these particular domains and proxies other traffic. As a result, Proxyman doesn't burden your Macbook CPU and has less energy for your Macbook battery.

5. Proxyman CA Certificate

We understand that this process is so complicated with other tools, so we carefully re-design it to simplify it.

As soon as you enable SSL Proxying, Proxyman would prompt a Certificate Installation Windows:

You can either install the certificate in an Automatic or Manual way.

  • Automatic: It's a useful solution for installing and trusting the Proxyman Certificate in one step.
  • Manual: You can install and trust manually. It's suitable for power-user.

If you're a beginner, we highly recommend using the Automatic way because it can be done with a single click.

Home Page

6. Request and Response Previewer

After installing the Proxyman Certificate, it's a perfect time to debug 😋. Proxyman is now capable of intercepting the HTTPS request & response and automatically displaying in pretty-JSON viewers.

From the Content panel (Bottom-Panel), you can navigate to:

  • Header, Query, Cookies, and JSON response

All content viewers are built-in with a native search bar. So you can manipulate or search the content by pressing Ctrl-F as usual.

Home Page

Alternatively, even with your favorite Editor apps ❤️

Home Page

7. Debug with different params

Proxyman is built-in with a useful collection of debugging tools:

Home Page

  • Repeat: Repeat your Request with current parameters => It's super easy to try out your API, to make sure it works or not
  • Edit & Repeat: Start editing the parameters => Test new context quickly. It's useful when you want to know how the Backend responds to new requests.
  • Map Local: Map matched requests with a local file as a response.
  • Map Remote: Change the destination of the request. Ex: Change all localhost:8080 to https://api.myserver.com
  • Breakpoint: Modify the request and response on the fly.
  • .....

Home Page

8. Export your current Session

You can export your current Proxyman Session and share it with your teammates or QA team ❤️ From there, your co-workers could open and reproduce the bugs/issues immediately.

Home Page

Or directly attach the log session to any Project Management like Jira or Trello.

9. Multiple Tabs

Proxyman takes advantage of Cocoa Document-Based app, so you can work in different tabs efficiently.

More interesting, all tab hot-keys are consistent with Google Chrome and Safari, so you can increase your productivity significantly 🚀

  • Ctrl+T to open a new Tab.
  • Ctrl+Shift+ [ or ] to navigate tab forward or backward.
  • Ctrl+1, 2, 3 (number) to quickly open specific tabs.

Home Page

10. Where to Go From Here?

If you have any questions or feature requests, don't hesitate to open the ticket in our GitHub.

Follow us at Twitter, GitHub or send us a "Hi" 💌 to nghia@proxyman.io


Proxyman is a high-performance macOS app, which enables developers to capture and inspect HTTP(s) traffic from apps and domains on iOS devices, iOS Simulators, and Android devices.

Get it at https://proxyman.io/

Noah Tran
Noah Tran