How-to
How to route just one app through a proxy on macOS
macOS 13+ · Apple Silicon and Intel · Updated 2026-08-28
The problem
You want Chrome (or Telegram, or a single work tool) to use a proxy. You do not want your company VPN client, your Steam downloads, your local development server or your NAS to go anywhere near it. macOS gives you one proxy switch for the entire system, so the usual result is all-or-nothing: turn it on and everything is routed; turn it off and nothing is.
Setting the proxy inside each application is not a real fix either. Many apps have no proxy settings, some ignore the system ones on purpose, and command-line tools each want their own environment variables.
The fix: route by application, below the app
ProxyRouter attaches to the macOS network layer and decides, for every new connection, which path it takes based on which process opened it. The application is not involved and does not need to cooperate.
Step by step
- Install ProxyRouter and approve the system extension when macOS asks. This happens once.
- Add your upstream under Proxies: a SOCKS5 or HTTP endpoint you already have. A local client counts — 127.0.0.1:7890 is a perfectly good upstream.
- Set the default action to Direct, so nothing you have not named is affected.
- Add a rule: pick the application from the list by its icon, and choose the upstream it should use.
- Open Activity and watch the app's connections. Each one shows the path it took and the rule that decided it.
Checking it actually worked
Two checks are usually enough. In Activity, the routed app's connections should be marked with the upstream you chose, while a second app you did not route should still be marked Direct. If you want to confirm without generating traffic, the rule tester takes an application and a destination and tells you which rule would match — without sending a packet.
Common variations
- Route by destination instead of by app — for example send only one domain through the proxy, from any application.
- Route an app to the proxy but keep its LAN and localhost connections direct, so internal services keep working.
- Give a terminal a different upstream from the browser, so a build can pull through a staging gateway while browsing stays on the corporate proxy.
FAQ
Why doesn't the macOS proxy setting do this already?
Because there is exactly one of it, per network service, and it applies to the whole system. macOS has no per-application proxy setting, so the moment you switch it on, every app that respects it is routed — and every app that ignores it is not.
Does the app I'm routing need to support proxies?
No. That is the main reason to use a tool like this. Routing happens below the application, at the system network layer, so apps with no proxy settings at all — and apps that deliberately ignore them — are still routed correctly.
Can different apps use different proxies at the same time?
Yes. Each rule points at its own upstream, so a browser can use one proxy while a terminal uses a second and a database client stays on a third — all at once.
What happens to everything I didn't list?
It follows the default action, which should normally be Direct. Set that once and anything you have not explicitly routed keeps connecting exactly as it did before you installed anything.
ProxyRouter comes with a free full-feature trial, no card required. You bring your own SOCKS5 or HTTP upstream — a corporate proxy, a staging gateway, or a port on localhost. We do not provide or resell proxy servers.