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Introduction

Proxelar is a scriptable local traffic workbench written in Rust. It sits between a client and an upstream service so you can inspect, intercept, replay, and modify HTTP, HTTPS, and WebSocket traffic.

It is aimed at development and debugging workflows: API inspection, local service mocking, request/response rewriting, WebSocket debugging, and repeatable traffic transforms without changing the application under test.

What can it do?

  • Inspect traffic — see every request and response in real time, including headers and bodies
  • Intercept HTTPS — automatic CA certificate generation and per-host certificate minting
  • Modify traffic with Lua scripts — write on_request and on_response hooks to transform, block, or mock traffic at runtime
  • Forward and reverse proxy — use as a system proxy (forward) or put it in front of your service (reverse)
  • Three interfaces — interactive TUI, plain terminal output, or web GUI
  • Inspect WebSockets — capture WebSocket connections and browse individual frames

What is it not?

Proxelar is not trying to replace a mature security suite. If you need scanning, collaborative testing, a large addon ecosystem, or advanced transparent capture today, use a tool built for that workflow. Proxelar is deliberately smaller: a local, scriptable proxy that is easy to install, run, and automate.

Architecture

Proxelar is built as a three-crate Rust workspace:

  • proxelar-cli — the CLI binary with three interface modes
  • proxyapi — the core proxy engine, usable as a standalone library
  • proxyapi_models — shared request/response data types

The proxy engine is built on hyper 1.x, rustls 0.23, and tokio. HTTPS interception uses OpenSSL for certificate generation and rustls for TLS termination. Lua scripting is powered by mlua with a vendored Lua 5.4.