Components

Surge consists of several components that work together.

Surge Proxy Server

This is the core of Surge. It is a full-featured HTTP/SOCKS5 proxy server optimized for macOS and iOS.

Surge Virtual Network Interface (Surge VIF)

Some apps do not obey system proxy settings (such as Mail.app), because they need to use a raw TCP socket. This kind of traffic can be handled by Surge VIF.

Surge VIF is enabled by default for Surge iOS. You may enable Surge VIF on Surge Mac by turning on Enhanced Mode.

This is the architecture for Surge iOS:

Surge Dashboard (Mac Version Only)

Surge Dashboard is a graphical interface for reviewing requests and inspecting DNS cache. It can connect to the local Surge instance or to a remote instance when external-controller-access is configured.