Lightweight, fast, open-source web proxy for macOS
A modern alternative to heavy proxy platforms — built in Rust, designed for security testing.

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What is Sniper?

Sniper is an open-source desktop web security proxy for macOS. It intercepts, inspects, and modifies HTTP/HTTPS traffic between your browser and the internet — the core workflow for web application security testing, bug bounty hunting, and API debugging.

If you've used Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, or Caido, you'll feel right at home — but without the Java overhead, subscription fees, or bloated feature set. Sniper is a native macOS app written in Rust that starts in under a second and stays under 100 MB of RAM.

Who it's for: penetration testers, bug bounty hunters, security researchers, and developers who need to see what's happening on the wire.

Install

Download the latest .dmg from Releases, open it, and drag Sniper to your Applications folder.

Or build from source:

cargo run --bin sniper-desktop

Features

Category	What you get
Proxy	HTTP forwarding, HTTPS MITM, persistent root CA, https://sniper cert portal
Capture	HTTP history, WebSocket sessions, intercept queue, match & replace rules
Findings	Passive vulnerability scanner — sensitive data, CORS, missing headers, JWT issues
Replay	Modify and resend any captured request
Fuzzer	Payload-based request testing with markers
Tools	Decode, encode, hash, JWT inspector, data transformations
Sessions	Isolated workspaces — each with its own records, scope, and state
Scope	Domain/path filtering with site map visualization
Themes	12 themes — 7 dark + 5 light, gold-accent design language
CLI	sniper-cli — JSON-first automation for scripting
AI Skills	Built-in Claude & Codex skill templates using sniper-cli

Why Sniper?

	Sniper	Burp Suite	OWASP ZAP	Caido
Runtime	Native (Rust)	JVM	JVM	Rust + Electron
Startup	< 1 sec	10+ sec	10+ sec	~3 sec
Memory	~80 MB	500+ MB	400+ MB	~200 MB
Price	Free	$449/yr Pro	Free	Freemium
CLI automation	JSON-first	Limited	Limited	API
AI integration	Built-in	No	No	No

Quick start

1. Download and open Sniper
2. Point your browser proxy to 127.0.0.1:8080
3. Visit https://sniper to download and trust the root CA
4. Start capturing

Default listeners:

• Proxy: 127.0.0.1:8080
• UI: 127.0.0.1:23001 (headless mode)

Core workflow

Session → Scope → Capture → Replay → Fuzz
                    │
          ┌─────────┼─────────┐
      Intercept    HTTP    WebSocket
                    │
               Findings (passive scan)

• Session — isolated workspaces with their own records and state
• Scope — define target domains/paths, auto-filter traffic
• Capture — inspect HTTP, intercept & modify, WebSocket frames, auto-replace
• Findings — passive scanner detects sensitive data leaks, CORS misconfig, missing security headers, JWT weaknesses
• Replay — resend with modifications, override host/port
• Fuzzer — insert markers, run payload lists
• Tools — decode/encode/hash/JWT in one place

CLI

sniper-cli session list
sniper-cli --output compact capture http list --limit 10
sniper-cli capture http replay --id <id> --dry-run
sniper-cli capture http replay --id <id> --yes
sniper-cli scope set-scope --pattern '*.example.com' --dry-run
sniper-cli scope set-scope --pattern '*.example.com' --yes
sniper-cli fuzzer run --dry-run
sniper-cli fuzzer run --yes

Legacy subcommands keep their original raw JSON success output for compatibility. call success output is wrapped in an automation envelope; use --output compact for one-line JSON and read call results from data.

AI/automation callers can invoke manifest operations directly:

sniper-cli --output compact call capture.http.list --input '{"limit":20,"page":true}'
sniper-cli --output compact call replay.send --input '{"tab_id":"<tab-id>"}' --dry-run
sniper-cli --output compact call replay.send --input '{"tab_id":"<tab-id>"}' --yes

All side-effecting commands with side_effect: "write" in sniper-cli manifest require --dry-run or --yes.

sniper-cli manifest
sniper-cli schema input replay.send
sniper-cli examples capture.http.list
printf "%s" "$OAST_TOKEN" | sniper-cli capture oast configure --provider custom --url https://oast.example --token-stdin --yes

AI integration

sniper-cli skills install --all --dry-run
sniper-cli skills install --all --yes

AI agents can drive the full workflow through CLI — capture, scope, replay, fuzz — no UI scraping needed.

Tech stack

Layer	Technology
Core	Rust — proxy, MITM, TLS, session management
HTTP	hyper + tokio async runtime
TLS	rustls + rcgen for on-the-fly certificate generation
UI server	axum serving embedded SPA
Frontend	Vanilla JS + CSS — zero framework, zero build step
Desktop shell	Native WebView (wry)
Packaging	macOS .app + .dmg with code signing & notarization

Build from source

cargo run --bin sniper-desktop   # Desktop app
cargo run --bin sniper           # Headless proxy + UI server
cargo run --bin sniper-cli       # CLI
cargo test                       # Tests
./packaging/macos/release-macos.sh   # macOS .app + .dmg

Project layout

src/
├── proxy.rs           # Proxy core, HTTPS MITM, replay
├── api.rs             # UI/API server (axum)
├── scanner.rs         # Passive vulnerability scanner
├── session.rs         # Session registry & snapshots
├── certificate.rs     # Root CA generation & export
├── store.rs           # HTTP transaction store
├── model.rs           # Normalized data models
├── intercept.rs       # Request intercept queue
├── match_replace.rs   # Auto match & replace rules
├── fuzzer.rs          # Payload fuzzer engine
├── websocket.rs       # WebSocket capture
├── bin/
│   ├── sniper-desktop.rs   # Native desktop shell (wry)
│   └── sniper-cli.rs       # JSON-first CLI
web/                   # Frontend SPA (vanilla JS/CSS)
packaging/
├── macos/             # .app & .dmg packaging scripts
└── skills/            # Claude & Codex skill templates

License

MIT