5 ms·

Show HN: Trayce – Burp Suite for developers

84 points by ev_dev3 1y ago

About a year ago I introduced Trayce to HN as the "network tab for docker containers". Now I have released a new version which adds an HTTP client. The idea is to combine network monitoring with an HTTP client to help developers interact with and debug web application servers. Think "Burp Suite for developers". Trayce stores requests as local files using the .bru file format. The UI is based on Flutter which means it offers a super-fast and modern desktop GUI with a total download size of 13MB (on Linux). I am still adding features to it so would love feedback. Currently the new features in the pipeline are: OAuth2, GRPC, and scripting. It is open source and free to use but a perpetual license must be purchased for continued use. The license model is similar to that of Sublime Text. Thank you!

ev_dev3 1y ago
P.S. Here is the original post of Trayce from a year ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41102981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41102981.
Sytten 1y ago
Caido founder here. It is an interesting idea. The market is pretty crowded on the development side with the Requestly, HTTPToolkit, Charles Proxy, Fiddler and Postman like of this world. Is the value proposition mainly the thight Docker integration?
- ev_dev3 1y ago
  Great question! What differentiates Trayce from other HTTP clients are: - An ebpf-based network monitor which allows instant monitoring of HTTP(S), GRPC, MySQL, PostgreSQL. Most of those apps can only monitor HTTP using a proxy. Trayce does not use a proxy, it reads the traffic from the kernel layer. - UI is based on Flutter, not Electron or any other browser-based framework. - Local git-friendly HTTP request storage
  - jcjmcclean 1y ago
    Very cool that it doesn't need a proxy. That's like magic! Can't wait to try it out on something.
- cyberpunk 1y ago
  And still none of these do protobuf/grpc/http2 properly. I had to MITM some grpc service a while ago to develop a replacement for it and it was basically impossible in the end. MITMProxy got the closest, but it couldn't decode the protobufs. I'd pay for any tool which could do that; if it existed.
  - ev_dev3 1y ago
    If you're willing to, would you get in touch over email? I'm curious to learn more about your use case. My email is in my HN profile. Trayce lets you import your .proto file to properly parse grpc messages.
leetrout 1y ago
Another really great dev tool related to network traffic and proxying is Toxiproxy https://github.com/Shopify/toxiproxy https://github.com/Shopify/toxiproxy Great for ensuring your app works well with poor connections especially when using things like WebSockets.
ignoramous 1y ago
The url is "trayce.dev/?resubmit=hn" So, you're also traycing the developers lurking here? news.yc sets the "referrer" header, afaict.
fdw 1y ago
I'm a bit confused about the license: On the purchase page (https://get.trayce.dev/ https://get.trayce.dev/) you state that "a license must be purchased for continued use". But if I look into the GitHub repos (https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_agent https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_agent and https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_gui https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_gui), the license is GPL 3? So why do I need to purchase a license?
- Bjartr 1y ago
  To avoid the arduous task of commenting out a single line of code and rebuilding? /s https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_gui/blob/019ee5df0f2c4886ed584b01798bd55b0153d3e9/lib/network/repo/containers_repo.dart#L101 https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_gui/blob/019ee5df0f2c488...
- ev_dev3 1y ago
  The intention is to sell this software in a similar way to Sublime Text. So a one-off fee for a perpetual license. The main difference from Sublime is that Trayce's source code is available. If GPL3 isn't compatible with such a model then I'll have to re-evaluate what license to use..
  - fdw 1y ago
    IANAL, but GPL3 is compatible with selling the software (see Linux distros). However, it forces you to open up the complete source code and it allows the users to fork and recompile it as they see fit (but they must also open up their changes if they distribute it).
skyzouw 1y ago
[flagged]
mrbluecoat 1y ago
> not intended for production monitoring
- ev_dev3 1y ago
  Thats correct. The sub heading of the web page mentions monitoring for "local Docker containers". If you want production network monitoring then there are plenty of existing tools out there like Pixie or Kubeshark.
skyzouwdev 1y ago
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84 points by ev_dev3 1y ago

ev_dev3 1y ago

P.S. Here is the original post of Trayce from a year ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41102981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41102981.

Sytten 1y ago

Caido founder here. It is an interesting idea. The market is pretty crowded on the development side with the Requestly, HTTPToolkit, Charles Proxy, Fiddler and Postman like of this world. Is the value proposition mainly the thight Docker integration?

ev_dev3 1y ago
Great question! What differentiates Trayce from other HTTP clients are: - An ebpf-based network monitor which allows instant monitoring of HTTP(S), GRPC, MySQL, PostgreSQL. Most of those apps can only monitor HTTP using a proxy. Trayce does not use a proxy, it reads the traffic from the kernel layer. - UI is based on Flutter, not Electron or any other browser-based framework. - Local git-friendly HTTP request storage
- jcjmcclean 1y ago
  Very cool that it doesn't need a proxy. That's like magic! Can't wait to try it out on something.
cyberpunk 1y ago
And still none of these do protobuf/grpc/http2 properly. I had to MITM some grpc service a while ago to develop a replacement for it and it was basically impossible in the end. MITMProxy got the closest, but it couldn't decode the protobufs. I'd pay for any tool which could do that; if it existed.
- ev_dev3 1y ago
  If you're willing to, would you get in touch over email? I'm curious to learn more about your use case. My email is in my HN profile. Trayce lets you import your .proto file to properly parse grpc messages.

leetrout 1y ago

Another really great dev tool related to network traffic and proxying is Toxiproxy https://github.com/Shopify/toxiproxy https://github.com/Shopify/toxiproxy Great for ensuring your app works well with poor connections especially when using things like WebSockets.

ignoramous 1y ago

The url is "trayce.dev/?resubmit=hn" So, you're also traycing the developers lurking here? news.yc sets the "referrer" header, afaict.

fdw 1y ago

I'm a bit confused about the license: On the purchase page (https://get.trayce.dev/ https://get.trayce.dev/) you state that "a license must be purchased for continued use". But if I look into the GitHub repos (https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_agent https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_agent and https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_gui https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_gui), the license is GPL 3? So why do I need to purchase a license?

Bjartr 1y ago
To avoid the arduous task of commenting out a single line of code and rebuilding? /s https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_gui/blob/019ee5df0f2c4886ed584b01798bd55b0153d3e9/lib/network/repo/containers_repo.dart#L101 https://github.com/evanrolfe/trayce_gui/blob/019ee5df0f2c488...
ev_dev3 1y ago
The intention is to sell this software in a similar way to Sublime Text. So a one-off fee for a perpetual license. The main difference from Sublime is that Trayce's source code is available. If GPL3 isn't compatible with such a model then I'll have to re-evaluate what license to use..
- fdw 1y ago
  IANAL, but GPL3 is compatible with selling the software (see Linux distros). However, it forces you to open up the complete source code and it allows the users to fork and recompile it as they see fit (but they must also open up their changes if they distribute it).

skyzouw 1y ago

[flagged]

mrbluecoat 1y ago

> not intended for production monitoring

ev_dev3 1y ago
Thats correct. The sub heading of the web page mentions monitoring for "local Docker containers". If you want production network monitoring then there are plenty of existing tools out there like Pixie or Kubeshark.

skyzouwdev 1y ago

[dead]