Settings and logs
The Settings tab configures OnionGate itself. Operating-system posture and hardening live under System.
Connection presets
Applying a preset changes several settings together:
| Preset | Main changes |
|---|---|
| Everyday | Proxy mode, Tor DNS, Smart Connect, no kill switch, no selected-app policy |
| Censored Network | Tor DNS, Smart Connect, bundled Snowflake as the bridge source |
| Public Wi-Fi | TUN, Tor DNS, Smart Connect, UDP/QUIC kill switch |
| Maximum Isolation | Public Wi-Fi settings plus selected-app routing and Session Guard |
| Developer | Proxy mode, Tor DNS, Smart Connect, no kill switch |
A preset does not connect automatically. Review the resulting Routing and Bridges controls, then connect. Changing any covered value later makes the configuration Custom.
Maximum Isolation needs selected applications
The preset enables the selected-app policy, but it cannot choose applications for you. Add them under Apps → Split tunnel before relying on Session Guard.
DNS and system proxy defaults
Resolve through Tor enables Tor's local DNSPort. TUN sends DNS to it directly; proxy applications still need SOCKS hostname resolution such as socks5h.
Auto-enable system proxy is always applied in System proxy mode: Connect enables and verifies the operating-system SOCKS setting on the live default-route service, and fails closed if that verification does not hold. Turning the toggle off does not skip that step. In other modes, the toggle still means “also apply OS SOCKS on Connect.” It does not force applications that ignore the system proxy.
Auto-disable system proxy controls the normal automatic behavior, but a full Disconnect or Emergency Restore always attempts to restore the proxy snapshot recorded in the recovery journal.
Appearance and polling
- Theme: follow the operating system, light, or dark.
- Log level: Tor's
err,warn,notice,info, ordebugverbosity. Higher verbosity can expose more operational detail; use it temporarily. - Status poll: how often the UI refreshes live status. This is local polling, not telemetry.
- Language: English is currently the only selectable complete translation. Other listed languages remain disabled until their UI coverage is complete.
Clearnet alerts
Clearnet alerts pops up an always-on-top OnionGate window when a process opens a socket to the public Internet outside Tor while your session is Protected. It lists the offending processes and offers a one-click Kill it now.
It is deliberately an in-app window, not a macOS notification: notification text is handed to Apple's notification service, which persists and syncs it off this device, so the name of a process that just leaked would leave OnionGate. The alert payload stays in process memory only.
When the connection filter held the flow before it left the machine, the same window says the connection was stopped. After-the-fact detections still say the process already had a public socket.
The alert announces each process once per session, collapses a burst into a single window, and never fires for system or otherwise non-killable processes. It only appears while Protected — a clearnet socket during connect or teardown is expected — and turning the setting off silences it even while protected.
Connection filter
Connection filter (macOS) requires the Network Extension once it is installed. Default is on. The extension holds and drops outbound flows that are not already Tor. pf remains the packet lock. Apple can hide some of its own processes from the filter; that is a residual, not an Allow. A signed .pkg with a network-extension provisioning profile is required to load it. Unsigned debug ignores this toggle for the Protected badge.
Turn the matching Harden item on to install the extension, then approve it in System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions → Network Extensions. Unsigned and ad-hoc builds never appear in that list; they stay on pf.
Uninstall OnionGate
The Uninstall OnionGate control (bottom of Settings) removes the app, its privileged helper, the pinned sing-box, the pf anchors, OnionGate's system SOCKS proxy settings, and the shell hooks. It keeps your data directory by default so a reinstall preserves permanent Onion Host addresses; a separate confirmation is required to purge data, which destroys those keys irreversibly.
This control drives the in-bundle uninstaller that only .pkg installs carry. If you installed from the .dmg or from source, run scripts/macos-pkg/uninstall-oniongate.sh from the repository instead. See Install → Uninstall.
Connect on launch
Connect on launch starts a Tor session when OnionGate opens, instead of waiting for you to click Connect. It is off by default. Turn it on together with Block the network at boot and Start OnionGate at login (System → Harden) if you want no clearnet window between restarts: the boot lock holds the NIC closed until this session comes up. It does not run when Emergency Restore is waiting.
Host hardening
Operating-system hardening — the recommended boot network lock, the connection filter, launch at login, Wi-Fi off at boot with its auto-re-enable companion, MAC randomization, the legacy-services and remote-CUPS switches, and the expanded Kill Siri watchdog — lives under the System tab, not here. See Check and harden this machine.
Snowflake volunteer
The Snowflake volunteer control runs a proxy that helps other censored users reach Tor. It is separate from using Snowflake as a client transport for your own connection.
Starting it makes your machine part of Snowflake's volunteer infrastructure and uses network bandwidth. It does not relay arbitrary exit traffic and does not make your own OnionGate session more anonymous. Stop it before quitting if you do not want it running for the rest of the session; Disconnect also stops the managed volunteer process.
This control requires a separate snowflake-proxy executable on PATH. The bundled snowflake-client used to reach Tor is not the volunteer proxy. If the UI reports the proxy unavailable, OnionGate does not download or install it automatically.
Privileged helper
On supported systems, OnionGate can install oniongate-helper as a root-owned background service. make dev starts it. See Daemons for the typed protocol, CLI, and install paths.
There is deliberately no arbitrary-command request. TUN, proxy, helper installation/removal, and hardening actions may still use the platform's normal administrator prompt.
If the helper is unavailable, kill-switch operations fall back to interactive elevation rather than reporting false success.
Administrator access
Grant access primes the platform's normal elevation mechanism so a sequence of privileged actions is less likely to prompt repeatedly. Approval is temporary and platform-controlled.
Administrator access may be needed for:
- creating and stopping TUN;
- managing the firewall kill switch;
- installing or removing the helper;
- system proxy changes on platforms that require elevation;
- selected OS-hardening controls.
Cancelling a prompt prevents a Protected result. TUN may remain active while the journal is marked Degraded so captured traffic is not dropped onto a direct route; retry the failed control or Disconnect to clean up. OnionGate does not silently label the weaker state protected.
Signed updates
Check for updates downloads the release manifest from GitHub, verifies its Tauri updater signature against the public key embedded in the app, installs the update, and relaunches.
Until the project publishes its first signed release, build from source. A missing or invalid updater signature must be treated as a failed update, not bypassed.
See Local installers and updates for local DMG/EXE/package builds, release preparation, and stable-versus-staging update behavior.
Logs
The Logs view combines:
- up to 500 recent lines from managed Tor's local
tor.log; and - up to 400 in-memory OnionGate event lines for the current process.
Clear truncates tor.log and clears the in-memory list, then records a single “Log cleared” event.
Logs are never uploaded automatically. Before sharing them, remove bridge lines, onion addresses, local paths, application identifiers, and any destination information. See Local data and network activity.
About
The sidebar and the About card on Preferences show the bundled application version (the same number as the GitHub release). See the docs opens the published guide in the system browser. OpenHat Security opens the OnionGate GitHub repository. Those two destinations are allowlisted in the Rust core; the UI cannot open an arbitrary URL.
Local ports
The footer reports the managed local listeners:
- SOCKS
127.0.0.1:9050; - control
127.0.0.1:9051; - DNS
127.0.0.1:9053when enabled.
The isolated per-app SOCKS listener uses 127.0.0.1:9060.