Support

Need help with Onionskin? Open an issue on GitHub or email perseus.sepahi@uwaterloo.ca. Please include your macOS version and the Onionskin version (Onionskin ▸ About Onionskin).

Requirements

A Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later.

Setting up

1. Drag Onionskin into Applications and open it from there. macOS only allows network extensions from the Applications folder.
2. On the setup page, click Install, then turn on Onionskin in System Settings ▸ General ▸ Login Items & Extensions ▸ Network Extensions.
3. Click Allow when macOS asks whether Onionskin may add proxy configurations.
4. Add apps and click Turn On. Relaunch apps that were already running so their existing connections close.

Common questions

An app has no internet. That's the kill switch: Tor isn't connected yet, or Onionskin isn't running. Check the status in the sidebar or menu bar. If Tor is blocked on your network, choose obfs4 or Snowflake under Network ▸ Connection.

.onion sites don't open in Safari. macOS refuses to look up .onion names for ordinary apps, so no app can reach them transparently. Tor-aware apps can use Onionskin's SOCKS port (shown under Network) with remote DNS.

Printers or my NAS stopped working in a protected app. Local-network access is off by default because it bypasses Tor. Turn on Allow local network under Network ▸ Protection.

Is this as anonymous as Tor Browser? No. Onionskin changes how apps connect, not what they reveal. For the strongest anonymity, use Tor Browser.

Uninstalling

Choose Network ▸ Remove Network Extension…, then drag Onionskin from Applications to the Trash.