Allow List and Block List
Record only the hosts you care about, and refuse connections to the ones you want gone.
Two lists shape what WireLens captures and what it lets through.
Capture Allow List#
The Allow List keeps the capture focused. When it has entries, WireLens records only matching hosts. Everything else still works; it passes through without creating a row.
Use it when you are debugging one API and the rest of the device's chatter is noise. Open Tools ▸ Capture Allow List and add host patterns such as api.example.com or *.example.com. Clear the list to record everything again.
The Allow List is free, with no limit.
Block List#
The Block List refuses connections to matching hosts before they leave your device. Use it to see how an app behaves when an analytics service, a CDN or an API is unreachable.
Open Tools ▸ Block List, or right-click a flow and choose Block This Host.
Blocked requests stay visible, marked Blocked, so you can tell a block from an outage. How they are recorded depends on where WireLens caught them:
- When WireLens can answer in HTTP, the app receives a real
403 Forbidden, and Capture records that. - When the connection is refused before there is any HTTP to answer, WireLens closes it, and Capture records a blocked failure rather than a status the app never received.
Allow, Block or Exclude?#
| You want | Use |
|---|---|
| Only certain hosts in the capture | Allow List |
| A host to be unreachable | Block List |
| A host to work normally, but not be decrypted | SSL Proxying Exclude list |
Free and Pro#
The Allow List has no limit. The free plan includes two Block List rules; Pro removes the limit.
From the command line and MCP#
wirelens rules block add ads.example.com
wirelens rules block rm ads.example.com
The MCP tools are set_allow_list and set_block_list. A blank pattern is refused by both.
Something here is unclear, or wrong for your setup? Contact support or write to support@wirelens.app.