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How to see the requests to an https link from the command line

Open the link together with its inspector, a page in this computer's browser that shows every request to the link and your service's answer, and lets you send any request again:

proximamp http 3000 --inspect

On a server without a browser, open the page on your own computer through ssh, or watch the requests as lines in the terminal.

Open the inspector​

proximamp http 3000 --inspect   # the link and its inspector at once; the same for proximamp https 8443 --inspect
proximamp inspect               # the inspector of a link another command of this computer already holds
proximamp inspect t2            # with several links: the number from proximamp ls or the address
proximamp inspect --no-browser  # only print the page's address

The inspector works while the command runs. The command prints the page's address, http://127.0.0.1:<port>/#code=…, and opens it in the browser. The address works once and within a minute. For another tab or browser, press Enter in the command's window: it prints a new address.

The page opens only on this computer. In WSL the program answers "The inspector cannot run here: this system does not show which user a connection to 127.0.0.1 comes from (WSL is not supported)".

Since app version 1.4.0

The screen is the same as in ProximaClient: what the log shows and what you can do with a request is on the page "Inspector". The differences: proximamp has no network slowdown, and on the free plan a paid action shows a hint with the command proximamp plans instead of the plans screen.

On a server without a screen​

If the server can't open a browser, the command prints an ssh line. Run it on your own computer and open the page's address there:

ssh -o ExitOnForwardFailure=yes -L <port>:127.0.0.1:<port> <user>@<server>

Without --port the page takes a free port, which changes from run to run. To keep the ssh line the same, open the link without --inspect and start the inspector on a port of your own:

proximamp inspect --port 4040

A port forwarded with ssh -L is open to every user of your computer: do this only on your own.

If even that can't reach the page, for example when the server has only the hosting provider's web console, watch the requests as lines. At a terminal the link's own command prints them, under the address:

proximamp http 3000

Each request appears as a line when it ends:

#12  14:03:21  POST /api/orders  → 200  12 ms  1.2 KB

In the same window, a request's number prints the request and the answer in full, replay <number> sends the request to the service again, curl <number> prints it as a curl command for bash, and quit closes the link, as Ctrl+C does. Passwords, tokens and cookies are printed as [masked]: only the page in the browser can show them. In a script, under nohup, in Docker without -it and with the output going to a file, there are no request lines. A command started in the background prints the lines but takes no commands. In both cases a separate command in another window shows the requests and takes the commands. It starts with the last 20 requests, and quit there only exits:

proximamp inspect --text

In Docker the inspector page stays inside the container, so watch the requests as lines:

docker compose exec proximamp proximamp inspect --text   # Docker Compose
docker exec -it proximamp proximamp inspect --text       # docker run

The requests to a link of the service are shown by a command with the same --port, --text and ssh line (on Windows without sudo, in an administrator terminal):

sudo proximamp service inspect

On Linux the service's --port starts at 1024. If sudo answers command not found (why), type:

sudo env "PATH=$PATH" proximamp service inspect

Check​

Open the https://… link from the command's first line in your phone's browser: the request appears in the inspector and as a line in the command's window, with your service's answer code.