docmirror/dev-sidecar

Dev-sidecar is a desktop tool for developers who have difficulty accessing GitHub and other overseas websites from within China due to internet restrictions. The name is inspired by the concept of a "sidecar", a helper that runs alongside your main work to smooth things out. It is a JavaScript application built with Electron, meaning it runs as a native desktop app. The core mechanism is a local proxy: Dev-sidecar intercepts your HTTPS web requests and reroutes them through faster, accessible mirror channels. It also performs smart DNS selection, querying multiple IP addresses for a domain and automatically picking the fastest one, which helps avoid the issue where a site resolves to a server that is unreliable or blocked. For GitHub specifically, the tool accelerates git clone operations, file downloads (releases, source archives, zip files), avatar loading, and raw file access. It also speeds up Stack Overflow (by rerouting certain JavaScript libraries to accessible alternatives) and offers a one-click switch between the official npm package registry and a local mirror registry, which helps when standard package installation is slow or fails. The app has two main modes: a "safe mode" that only does DNS optimization without installing a certificate, and a default mode that intercepts and re-routes traffic via a locally generated certificate. When you first open it, it will prompt you to install this local root certificate so your browser trusts the intercepted connections. It runs on desktop systems including Windows, Mac, and Linux. The full README is longer than what was provided.