Shadowrocket 2.2.92 — Mac version

Menu bar bugs and table jumps finally settled

The latest build tidies up a few rough edges on macOS. Bugs that made the server tables jump around, the menu bar icon misbehave, and the Dock icon stick when it shouldn't have all been squashed. It feels a bit more at home on the Mac now.

SOCKS5 and Shadowsocks with app-level rules

• Running your traffic through Shadowsocks, V2Ray or SOCKS5 proxies with fine-grained rules
• Redirecting only the apps you choose — not the whole system
• Rewriting URLs and filtering HTTP, HTTPS and TCP traffic with script filters
• Full IPv6 support on both your direct Wi‑Fi and proxy connections
• Keeping an eye on network speed and data usage per connection
• Importing rule files straight from a URL or iCloud Drive
• Recording and inspecting HTTP, HTTPS and DNS requests your Mac makes

Proxy-only tool, needs Catalina or later

• The macOS build needs 10.15 Catalina at a minimum — PowerPC and early Intel Macs are out
• Built for ARM and 64‑bit Intel, but it is not a universal network tool; it is a proxy utility client
• The interface defaults to Russian but you can switch it to English, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese or Chinese in the settings

Switch the language and own your rules

Out of the box, Shadowrocket works but it is not tuned to how you actually use your Mac. A few quick changes make it feel less like a borrowed tool and more like your own.

• Switch the language first. If the interface opens in Russian, head to the preferences pane and pick English (or whichever you prefer). Everything else makes more sense after that.
• Start on login, but quietly. Tick the launch-at-login box, then find the Dock and menu bar options. I set mine to hide the Dock icon and show only the menu bar proxy indicator. It sits up there out of the way, like a little tally light telling you the connection is live.
• Default proxy mode. The app can run in Config mode (rules decide what goes through the proxy), Proxy mode (everything goes through), or Direct mode (nothing does). Config mode is where it earns its keep. Set that as the default unless you have a reason to tunnel absolutely everything.
• Test your server latency from the off. Right-click any server in the list and pick latency test. You get a real-time millisecond readout. Do it for all your servers before you build your rules — otherwise you are routing traffic blind.

URL rewrite silently reroutes domains

Some of the handiest bits are tucked away where you would not think to click.

• URL rewrite is a quiet powerhouse. If a request goes to one domain but you want it silently sent somewhere else, add a rewrite rule. Useful for redirecting old API calls or skipping tracking domains without blocking them outright. You find it under the Data tab, not in the main rule list — easy to overlook.
• Tap the speed graph in the menu bar. It drops down a tiny live summary of upload and download throughput per connection. Handy when you are on flaky café Wi‑Fi and want to know whether it is your proxy or the local line that has given up.
• DNS measurement is built in. The app records every DNS query your machine makes, alongside the HTTP and HTTPS logs. If a site fails to load, pop open the DNS log and see whether the lookup even completed. Fixes more problems than you would expect.
• Swipe to delete a log entry. In the request log, a two-finger swipe on a trackpad removes a row. No right-click menu, no confirmation dialogue — just gone.
• iCloud rule sync is not automatic but it is painless. Export your rule set to iCloud Drive once, and any other Mac running Shadowrocket can pull the same file from the import menu. Not true sync, but close enough for a machine you set up once and forget.

Grabs app traffic while your VPN does its job

Shadowrocket does not try to be your firewall or your VPN client. It grabs traffic from specific apps and sends it through a proxy, which means it plays nicely alongside tools that do other jobs.

If you already use a system-wide VPN for work, you can run Shadowrocket in parallel for just your browser and a handful of other apps. The VPN handles the corporate tunnel; Shadowrocket routes only the traffic you have told it to. No conflicts, because they sit at different layers.

It also cooperates with Little Snitch and similar network monitors. Those tools see the connection going to your proxy server — not the final destination. That is expected behaviour, but worth knowing when you are staring at a connection log wondering where half your traffic went.

On the macOS side, the app respects the system proxy settings when it is in Direct mode, and overrides them when it is in Config or Proxy mode. Toggling between modes from the menu bar takes about a second. If you use Network Locations on your Mac (one set of settings for home, another for the office), Shadowrocket stays consistent across them — it does not tie itself to a particular Location, which saves you reconfiguring things twice.

One small nicety: the app logs are plain enough that you can copy a batch of HTTP requests and paste them into a text editor or a spreadsheet without much cleanup. I have used that more than once to share request traces with someone who does not have the app installed.

ClashX rules versus Shadowrocket’s script filters

Three other proxy tools come up often when people talk about Shadowrocket for Mac, and each has a different shape.

ClashX / ClashX Pro. ClashX is often the default recommendation for Mac users who need a rule-based proxy. It handles Shadowsocks and V2Ray well, and its rule engine is powerful. The Pro version adds enhanced mode (a virtual network interface) for catching traffic that ordinary proxy settings miss. Compared with Shadowrocket, ClashX Pro leans harder on system-level routing; Shadowrocket works more like a per-app traffic interceptor. If you want a set-and-forget system proxy, ClashX Pro is the obvious choice. If you want per-app control and request inspection without leaving the GUI, Shadowrocket pulls ahead. ClashX also lacks Shadowrocket's built-in URL rewrite and HTTPS decryption features.

Surge Mac. Surge is probably the most polished proxy tool on macOS. It does everything Shadowrocket does — rules, rewriting, DNS, traffic inspection — and wraps it in a more Mac-native interface. Surge also includes a DHCP server, a network diagnostics panel, and an external controller for triggering actions from Shortcuts or the command line. The trade-off is complexity. Surge rewards people who like tweaking YAML configs and running benchmark suites. Shadowrocket is simpler to pick up. You open it, add a server, load some rules, and you are running. Shadowrocket gives you about eighty percent of Surge's capability with a fraction of the learning curve.

V2RayX. V2RayX is a lightweight macOS wrapper around the V2Ray core. It lives in the menu bar and does one thing: route traffic through V2Ray servers. No rewriting, no DNS over HTTPS, no traffic measurement, no ad blocking by domain rules. It is useful if all you need is a quick V2Ray tunnel and you do not care about anything else. Next to Shadowrocket, V2RayX feels like a single-purpose spanner in a drawer full of multi-tools. Fine for what it does, but the two apps are barely in the same category.

If you have been searching for a shadowrocket mac dmg or a shadowrocket for mac build that does not lock you into one protocol or one way of working, the app sits in a comfortable middle ground. It is not the most powerful option and not the lightest — but for inspecting traffic, writing rules by domain or IP range, and keeping an eye on what your Mac is saying to the network, it hits a sweet spot that the alternatives do not quite share.

• Fixed UI bugs in server tables, the menu bar and the Dock icon on macOS

• macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later
• Apple Silicon or 64‑bit Intel processor