Charles

Charles is an HTTP proxy and monitor that captures all HTTP and HTTPS traffic between a developer’s machine and the Internet. It records requests, responses, and full header information, allowing inspection of cookies, caching directives, and SSL details. The tool can also operate as a reverse proxy, forwarding traffic to target servers while preserving visibility into the exchange.

The application runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, providing a graphical interface for browsing captured sessions, filtering by domain or content type, and replaying or editing individual requests. It supports SSL/TLS interception, enabling decryption of HTTPS streams for detailed analysis. Recent releases have focused on performance enhancements, UI refinements, and platform‑specific fixes such as macOS crash resolution and Windows code‑signing updates.

Charles is aimed at developers, testers, and QA engineers who need to debug web services, troubleshoot API calls, or verify network behavior during development. Its stable status and continuous updates reflect a mature tool for inspecting and modifying web traffic in real time.