What OnionGate is
OnionGate is a desktop app that routes individual applications through isolated Tor circuits, turns a local port into an onion site, and checks whether its live routing controls and egress are behaving as expected. It bundles and manages Tor for you, so no terminal work is required.
OnionGate supports macOS, Linux x86_64, and Windows x86_64, plus Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. Platform-specific system integrations are listed in the platform matrix. The headless command-line companion focuses on managed Tor and permanent onion hosting.
What you can do with it
Route apps through Tor. Selected TUN-routed applications receive distinct Tor circuit contexts. On macOS and Linux, Session Guard can also suspend matched processes if that route drops.
See Connect and route traffic and Route applications for the boundary and platform limitations.
Host an onion site. Expose 127.0.0.1:<port> as a v3 onion service with client authorization and a QR handoff. Choose a temporary site that disappears for good when it stops, or a permanent one that keeps the same address across restarts. See Host an onion site.
Inspect the live boundary. While connected, a background watch lists processes with clearnet TCP that is not going through OnionGate. Run on-demand diagnostics covering DNS, IPv6, UDP/QUIC, and per-app policy, then export a redacted report. Verification is a live configuration and egress diagnostic, not a packet capture or formal proof.
Check and harden the machine itself. Read your macOS security state, apply reversible privacy and security changes, and watch what runs at startup. See Check and harden this machine.
What it is not
OnionGate is not a VPN, Tor Browser, Tails, a two-machine Tor gateway, an antivirus, or a general application firewall. Specifically, it does not:
- protect against browser fingerprinting — use Tor Browser for that;
- defend against a global adversary correlating traffic;
- make an unsafe application protocol anonymous;
- contain malware or replace endpoint security;
- tunnel UDP, which is blocked rather than leaked.
- prove that every process or packet followed the intended route.
Read the threat model before relying on it for anything sensitive.