abhinavsingh/proxy.py
3,533 stars·633 forks·Python·BSD-3-Clause·21 viewsabhinavsingh.com/proxy-py-a-lightweight-single-file-http-proxy-server-in-python↗
Proxy.py
proxy.py is a lightweight, dependency-free HTTP and reverse proxy framework built in Python that handles network traffic through asynchronous event loops and multi-core connection distribution. It acts as a customizable proxy server and embedded web server, allowing developers to inspect, route, and modify web traffic programmatically or via command-line execution wrappers.
The platform provides in-flight TLS interception and traffic decryption using generated root certificates, alongside modular extension hooks that support custom dashboard interfaces, request handling plugins, and REST API mocking. It also includes built-in capabilities for secure shell and local service tunneling, server response caching, network traffic filtering, and secure domain name resolution.
Additional operational tooling covers real-time metrics streaming over WebSockets, Prometheus telemetry exporting, thread-safe pub-sub messaging, and container image packaging for distributed environments.
Features
- Intercepting Proxies - Acts as a customizable proxy server and web framework built in Python for intercepting and routing web traffic.
- Reverse Proxy Configurations - Acts as a high-performance reverse and forward proxy server routing web traffic and inspecting TLS connections asynchronously.
- Proxy Traffic Management - Forwards incoming client requests to internal web servers, upstream pools, or custom reverse-proxy paths using routing rules.
- Client Connectivity Management - Maintains active network sockets and handles connection lifecycles across concurrent clients using an asynchronous event loop.
- Proxy Servers - Launches threadless asynchronous proxy servers that handle tens of thousands of connections per second with minimal memory.
- TCP Server Implementations - Accepts incoming TCP client connections across multiple processing cores to handle network traffic efficiently.
- Request and Response Transformations - Modifies HTTP headers and rewrites URL paths within a request/response pipeline.
- HTTPS Decryption Proxies - Decrypts HTTPS traffic using dynamically generated TLS certificates for inspection and modification.
- Custom Proxy Frameworks - Provides foundational libraries for building programmable network proxies with custom routing and request manipulation.
- Multi-Core Scaling - Distributes connection handling across all available processing cores on the system to maximize overall throughput and concurrency.
- SSL Encryption - Secures TCP communication using digital certificates and cryptographic wrappers to protect transmitted network traffic.
- Asynchronous Operation Execution - Handles incoming connections concurrently using asynchronous event loops instead of relying on dedicated operating system threads.
- Modular Extension Architectures - Allows developers to inject custom business logic and features through modular service providers.
- Asynchronous Event Loops - Manages non-blocking I/O operations through single-threaded event loops and coroutines.
- Python Web Frameworks - Provides a lightweight, dependency-free proxy server and web framework built in Python.
- Local Tunneling Services - Exposes local development environments to the public internet through encrypted tunnels.
- Python Application Embedders - Starts and stops proxy servers programmatically inside Python applications using blocking or non-blocking wrappers.
- REST API Mock Servers - Simulates backend responses for server endpoints to test client application behavior without running a live upstream server.
- Plugin-Extensible Dashboards - Supports custom plugins for adding operational views and components to the user interface.
- Publish-Subscribe Systems - Broadcasts internal application events to registered listeners so system components can react to state changes.
- PubSub Messaging Systems - Facilitates real-time message distribution using publish-subscribe patterns across concurrent components.
- Secure DNS Resolution - Performs domain name resolution using secure providers and custom resolvers equipped with built-in protection filters.
- SSH Tunneling Proxies - Exposes local services to the internet by routing traffic over secure SSH connections.
- HTTPS Tunneling - Proxies encrypted HTTPS requests through dedicated connect tunnels by establishing upstream network connections.
- Reverse Proxy Traffic Inspections - Pushes real-time traffic details to a browser devtools websocket endpoint for interactive debugging and inspection.
- End-to-End Encryption - Enforces SSL/TLS encryption between clients and servers to protect sensitive data in transit from interception.
- Traffic Filtering - Drops or rejects incoming connections and upstream requests based on client IP addresses, hostnames, or security rules.
- Metric Streaming - Displays live metrics and telemetry data continuously over an active websocket connection to monitor server performance.
- Prometheus Metrics Exporters - Exposes real-time server telemetry and operational metrics in Prometheus format.
- Response Caching - Stores upstream HTTP responses and static content on disk to serve repeat requests locally without hitting the origin server.
- Message Parsing - Extracts headers, status codes, and methods from raw HTTP messages.
Star history
How this analysis was created: This summary and feature list were written by an AI model that read the project's README and public documentation pages. Each feature links to the documentation it came from; stars, license and language come straight from the GitHub API. The model does not read the source code, and the analysis is refreshed when the project is re-analysed. Learn more on our About page.
