Proxy .orb -

Imagine you want to create an orb called company/deploy. You don't want to put your deployment logic in Bash inside the orb because it changes often.

The Proxy Orb Implementation:

In your orb.yml, you define a command:

description: >
  Deploys the application via the internal deployment service.
parameters:
  app-name:
    type: string
    description: "Name of the application to deploy"
  environment:
    type: enum
    enum: ["staging", "production"]
    default: "staging"
steps:
  - run:
      name: Trigger Deployment via Proxy
      command: |
        # The orb is just a proxy here; it calls the real engine.
        curl -X POST https://deploy-api.internal.company.com/v1/trigger \
          -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
          -d '"app": "<< parameters.app-name >>", "env": "<< parameters.environment >>"'

| Criterion | Score | |-----------|-------| | Documentation | 2/10 | | Ease of use | 5/10 | | Performance | 8/10 | | Security | 4/10 | | Portability | 3/10 | | Overall | 4.4/10 | proxy .orb

| Tool | Supports .orb? | Notes | |------|----------------|-------| | Orbital Proxy | ✅ Native | Main user | | Proxifier | ❌ | Uses its own .ppx | | Charles Proxy | ❌ | Uses .chls | | mitmproxy | ❌ | Uses Python scripts | | PAC (browser) | ❌ | Only JavaScript | | Clash | ❌ | Uses YAML |

Thus, .orb is niche — avoid for general-purpose proxy management.

When intercepting traffic for security testing, these tools must be told to treat .orb as "upstream" or "direct." Imagine you want to create an orb called company/deploy

In Charles Proxy:

| Feature | proxy.orb | PAC | system proxy env | iptables/route | |--------|-----------|-----|------------------|----------------| | Standardized | ❌ | ✅ (IETF) | ✅ | ✅ | | Domain-based rules | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | App-based routing | ✅ (tool‑dependent) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | Authentication | ✅ | ❌ (needs proxy server) | ❌ | ❌ | | Failover | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | Learning curve | Medium | High | Low | High |

In the evolving landscape of local development, virtualization tools like Docker Desktop, VMware, and Parallels have long dominated the conversation. However, a new contender has rapidly gained traction among performance-savvy developers: OrbStack. | Criterion | Score | |-----------|-------| | Documentation

As you dive into the documentation or configuration files of this lightweight machine engine, you will inevitably encounter a peculiar and powerful directive: proxy .orb (often seen as *.orb or the orb domain in proxy configs). Understanding this keyword is the key to unlocking seamless networking between your host machine, Linux virtual machines, and containers.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of what proxy .orb means, how to configure it, common pitfalls, and advanced use cases for local TLS and zero-config networking.

If you are a developer working with Orb, a command-line tool often used for managing local development stacks (similar to Docker Compose or Nix), you may need to proxy network requests for the CLI itself.