Sessions and export

Sessions

Puffin records your current session as you capture. Save it to keep it.

• File ▸ Save Session (⌘S, or Save in the main window) asks for a name and saves the whole session to Puffin’s Sessions folder. Capture keeps running while you save.
• File ▸ Save Session As saves it anywhere you like. Puffin remembers it in its list of recent sessions.
• Saved sessions are listed under Saved Sessions in the sidebar. Right-click one to rename it, show it in Finder or move it to the Trash.

Opening a saved session

Click a session in the sidebar, choose File ▸ Open Session (⌘O), or double-click a .puffinsession file in Finder.

• The session replaces the live list in the main window, with every inspector tab. A bar above the table shows its name, and Back to Live returns to your live traffic as you left it.
• Opening a session stops capture, and capture stays off while you view it.
• Puffin opens a working copy, so the saved file is never changed.

Redacting secrets

The save sheet has a Redact sensitive data section, so you can share a session without its secrets. It can replace authorization headers, cookies, and the header names, query parameters and JSON body keys you list with [redacted]. A preview shows how much will be replaced before you save. The live session is not changed, and a redacted session is marked Redacted when you open it. HAR export uses the same settings.

Limits and clearing

Set caps on the number of stored requests and the size of stored bodies in Settings ▸ Storage. They apply the next time you launch the app. Clear the list at any time from the main window.

HAR

HAR is the format browsers’ developer tools use for network captures.

• Export HAR 1.2 for all traffic (File ▸ Export All as HAR) or for selected rows from the context menu. The export includes decoded response text, compression details, timings, and failed requests with an error note.
• Redaction is optional and uses the same settings as saving a session (see above).
• Import HAR files with File ▸ Import HAR. The importer is forgiving, so files from browsers that leave out fields still load.

A HAR exported from Puffin carries a few extra fields (such as the app and TLS state), so it imports back into Puffin with the same detail.

Copy as cURL or code

Right-click a request and choose Copy as, then a format: cURL, JavaScript fetch, Node, Python (requests or httpx), Swift, Go, Kotlin, Java, Ruby, PHP, PowerShell, HTTPie or wget. Copy as is also in the inspector’s top line and next to Send in the Composer. ⇧⌘C copies in the format you used last.

Choose Leave Out Cookies & Authorization in the same menu to drop those headers and credential query parameters from the snippet.

For cURL, the command is safely quoted for your shell. Some details to know:

• Accept-Encoding becomes --compressed.
• Content-Length, hop-by-hop headers and a Host header that repeats the URL are left out.
• A body that contains NUL bytes, or is over 200 KB, is replaced with a @body.bin placeholder and a warning.