The Busymate proxy server is a Charles-style MITM proxy for everything that isn't an iOS BusymateHelper install — Android phones, desktop browsers, your own backends, curl, and debug-build iOS apps. Point a client at it, trust its certificate, and the request/response pairs stream straight into your dashboard alongside everything else you're capturing.
What it is
Where the iOS app captures traffic on-device with a VPN tunnel, the proxy server does the same job for clients that can't run that app. It's a small Node service you point a client's proxy settings (or a PAC URL) at. It sits in the middle of the connection, decrypts HTTPS for the hosts you opt into, and forwards everything on to its real destination — so the client behaves normally while you watch every exchange live.
It's the third capture client in the family, next to iOS and the CDP connector. All three write to the same place, so a single dashboard feed can show traffic from a phone, a browser, and a backend at once.
How a capture happens
The proxy generates its own certificate authority (CA) the first time it runs, then mints a short-lived leaf certificate for each host you decrypt — on demand, as traffic arrives.
For each exchange the proxy records the method, URL, status, headers, timing, and bodies (captured up to 1 MB, decompressed), and streams it to your feed in real time. HTTPS only decrypts for hosts on your SSL-proxy list — everything else passes through as an opaque tunnel. See What gets decrypted.
Where to go next
- Install & run — get the proxy running and registered to your dashboard.
- Connect a client — point a browser, phone, or backend at it.
- Trust the CA — install the certificate so HTTPS can be decrypted.
- What gets decrypted — choose which hosts get MITM'd.
- Breakpoints & resend — pause, edit, and replay traffic.
- External proxy — chain egress through an upstream proxy.
Tip: For the full design — listeners, capture path, ingest, and the control plane — see Proxy server architecture. For how traffic is attributed to the right device, see Per-device attribution.