# Installing Charles WebProxy

## Downloading and installing

The steps will be similar on macOS and Linux, for simplicity we focus on Windows. \
Download the binary here: <https://www.charlesproxy.com/download/>

## Trusting Root Certificate

Charles needs to have it's root certificate trusted by your computer in order to decrypt TLS connections. Click on `Help -> SSL Proxying -> Install Charles Root Certificate` .

A new window will open, click on `Install Certificate...` and select either `Current User`  or `Local Machine`. This only matters if you want to use Charles on multiple users. Click `Next` .

You then need to select the certificate store. This is really important, as Charles needs to be in the `Trusted Root Certification Authorities` folder. You can place it here by selecting `Place all certificates in the following store` and selecting the correct folder after clicking on `Browse.`\
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Then click `Next` and `Finish`, it should show like this:\
![](https://2471110273-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FIMPIbZNfwQBFmM4pipPj%2Fuploads%2Fl2ROzfkVOkUAeipAqykJ%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=ae83e5f4-314c-447d-ad1b-3865c3e9d84e)

## Decrypting TLS

By default, Charles will not decrypt `https` traffic. In order for this to work you need to go to `Proxy -> SSL Proxying Settings` and enable `Enable SSL Proxying`, you must also add a wildcard to the `Include` section. After you're done it should look like this:\
![](https://2471110273-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FIMPIbZNfwQBFmM4pipPj%2Fuploads%2FspuZw740j1Gjy2bEoIds%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=3d54f57d-1b8d-4702-a246-ca2ccd3dac14)

## Finished!

You're all set! You can now route your script's traffic through `http://127.0.0.1:8888` and have it show up in Charles. Or you can enable `Proxy -> Windows Proxy` to have your browser automatically route it's traffic through Charles.

{% hint style="info" %}
Pro tip: Route your browser with a Proxy profile so that it only shows traffic in Charles when you need to.
{% endhint %}

I recommend reading their official documentation here: <https://www.charlesproxy.com/documentation/> as there are much more features that I won't cover in-depth here. \
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Get in touch: [discord.gg/akamai](https://discord.gg/akamai)