shadowsocks/shadowsocksx-ng

ShadowsocksX-NG is a macOS desktop application that provides a graphical interface for the Shadowsocks proxy protocol. Shadowsocks is an encrypted proxy designed to help users route internet traffic through a remote server, commonly used to bypass regional network restrictions. The application wraps the ss-local command-line tool and runs it as a background launch agent on macOS. Users configure a remote Shadowsocks server, providing the server address, port, encryption method, and password, through a menu bar icon interface. The app then manages the local proxy connection, allowing system traffic or specific applications to be routed through that encrypted tunnel. Features include support for multiple server configurations, the ability to switch between them from the menu bar, an option to set the system proxy automatically, a QR code scanner for importing server settings, and PAC (Proxy Auto-Config) file support so that only traffic matching certain rules is proxied while other traffic goes directly. The app is built in Swift and is specific to macOS. It is distributed as a compiled application, so most users will simply download the release package rather than building from source. When to use it: this tool is intended for macOS users who already have access to a Shadowsocks server and want a convenient graphical way to manage and connect to it, without running command-line tools manually. It is most relevant for users who need to route traffic through an encrypted proxy for privacy or to access content not available in their region. Setting up a Shadowsocks server itself is outside the scope of this application.