CLI Overview & Global Options
The proxybroker binary is a thin shell over the library. Every
invocation has the shape:
proxybroker [GLOBAL OPTIONS] <SUBCOMMAND> [SUBCOMMAND OPTIONS]
--help and --version work at every level. The version string also prints the DB-IP
attribution required by the bundled geo data’s CC BY 4.0 license (see
Data & Licensing).
proxybroker --help
proxybroker find --help
Global options
These are declared global = true, so they may appear before or after the subcommand and
apply to whichever command runs. proxybroker --log debug find … and
proxybroker find --log debug … are equivalent.
| Option | Value | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
--log | error|warn|info|debug|trace | warn | Log level. The RUST_LOG env filter, if set, overrides this. |
--log-format | text|json | text | Log output format. json emits line-delimited JSON for a log pipeline. |
--geo-db | PATH | bundled DB-IP | Path to a MaxMind-format country database, overriding the bundled one. |
--asn-db | PATH | (off) | Path to a MaxMind-format ASN database (e.g. GeoLite2-ASN.mmdb) to attribute each proxy to its Autonomous System. No ASN data is bundled, so ASN fields are empty unless this is given. |
--provider-dir | DIR | (none) | Load extra providers from YAML/JSON configs in this directory, appended to the bundled set. May be repeated. |
--providers-only | flag | off | Use only the --provider-dir providers, ignoring the bundled registry. Errors if no valid configs are found. |
Notes:
--geo-dband--asn-dbare only honored when the binary is built with thegeofeature (on by default). See Feature Flags.--provider-dirmay be passed multiple times; each directory’s configs are appended. Pair with--providers-onlyto replace the bundled registry entirely. See Providers & Scraping.
Subcommands
| Command | Purpose | Feature |
|---|---|---|
grab | Gather proxy candidates from providers without checking them. | always |
find | Gather and check proxies, classifying anonymity. | always |
check | Check a list of proxies you already have (stdin or --infile). | always |
serve | Run a local proxy server that rotates through working proxies. | server |
top | Live terminal dashboard: sortable pool table + latency sparklines. | tui |
mcp | Serve the live pool over MCP (stdio): get_proxy, pool_status, report_dead. | mcp |
serve, top, and mcp are compiled in only when their feature is enabled. A stock build
may not list them in --help.
Value syntax
Two argument types recur across the checking subcommands:
- Protocols (
--types): case-insensitive wire names —HTTP,HTTPS,SOCKS4,SOCKS5,CONNECT:80,CONNECT:25. Pass several space-separated:--types HTTP HTTPS SOCKS5. - Anonymity levels (
--lvl):Transparent,Anonymous, orHigh(case-insensitive). Levels apply to HTTP only; other protocols ignore them.
Output formatting (--format, --output-format, --outfile, --save) is shared by
grab, find, and check — see Output Formats.