Allow List and Block List
Record only the hosts you care about, and refuse or hide the ones you do not.
Two lists decide what WireLens records and what it lets through. The Block List is on Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android. The Capture Allow List is on the Mac only.
Block List#
The Block List refuses connections to matching hosts before they leave your device. Use it to see how your app behaves when an analytics service, a CDN or an API is unreachable. Blocking works without decryption.
Blocked attempts stay in the traffic list, which keeps them apart from a real outage. How they are recorded depends on where WireLens caught them:
- Where WireLens can answer, your app receives a real
403 Forbidden, and that is what the capture shows. - Where the connection is refused before there is anything to answer, such as a connection caught mid-handshake, WireLens closes it, and the capture records a blocked failure with no status code.
On the Mac#
Open Tools ▸ Block List, or right-click a flow or a domain in the sidebar and choose Block ‹host›. Unblock ‹host› takes it off again. Blocked rows are marked Blocked, and the Blocked filter chip above the traffic list shows everything that tried to reach a blocked host.
Blocked hosts holds plain host patterns. Rules match more:
- Match: Host, URL or App (the app a request came from).
- Pattern: Wildcard or Regex. A blank pattern matches nothing.
- Action: Block refuses the exchange. Hide lets it through untouched and keeps it out of the capture, for traffic you want to stop seeing without changing what the app under test does.
On iPhone and iPad#
Open Tools ▸ Block List, or long-press a host or a request and choose Block ‹host›. A switched-off entry stays on the list without blocking.
On Android#
Open Tools ▸ Block List, or long-press a host or a request and choose Block Host. Unblock Host takes it off again.
Capture Allow List#
The Allow List keeps a capture focused. It is on the Mac only. When it has entries, WireLens records only matching domains. Everything else still works: it passes through to its destination without a row.
Open Tools ▸ Capture Allow List and add domains such as api.example.com or *.example.com, typed by hand or picked from what the capture has seen. Status says whether capture is restricted. Uncheck an entry to park it, or clear the list to record everything again.
The Allow List has no limit on the free plan.
Allow, Block or Exclude?#
| You want | Use |
|---|---|
| Only certain hosts in the capture (Mac) | Capture Allow List |
| A host to be unreachable | Block List |
| A host to work normally, but not be decrypted | SSL Proxying Exclude list |
| A host to work normally and stay out of the capture (Mac) | A Block List rule set to Hide |
Free and Pro#
The free plan includes two Block List entries on each platform. On the Mac, hosts and rules share those two. Pro removes the limit.
From the command line and MCP#
On the Mac, wirelens ships inside the app and is not on your PATH until you link it once.
wirelens rules block add ads.example.com
wirelens rules block rm ads.example.com
wirelens rules allow --pattern api.example.com
wirelens rules allow rm --pattern api.example.com
The MCP tools are set_allow_list and set_block_list, and add_block_rule for a rule that matches a full URL or an app, or that hides traffic instead of blocking it. All three refuse an entry with no pattern.
Something here is unclear, or wrong for your setup? Contact support or write to support@wirelens.app.