In this post we'll look at how we can use Proxyman to inspect, and repeat Airtable API requests.

Proxyman is an application for Windows, MacOS, and iOS which enables developers to capture, inspect, and manipulate HTTP(s) requests/responses with ease.

Proxyman doesn't require us to make modifications to our API integrations or to point requests at a special Airtable API proxy, getting started is a breeze.

Installing Proxyman

Head over to Proxyman.io to download Proxyman for your system.

Once Proxyman is downloaded, run and complete the installation.

Filtering in Proxyman

After launching Proxyman you'll probably see a bunch of logs streaming in, let's tidy things up for ourselves by filtering them down.

We're going to select "Filter" to access the filter options.

Now let's keep the default URL filter and enter "api.airtable.com" in the text field so that we only see relevant requests.

Perfect, our logs are filtered now and we've gotten rid of a bunch of other noise.

Installing the Proxyman CA cert

Before we send any requests we'll want to install the Proxyman CA cert so that Proxyman is able to decrypt the traffic that it sees.

In the Menu bar select Certificate > Install Certificate on this Mac.

Now we'll select "Install & Trust".

Finally, let's authorize Proxyman to make the necessary changes to trust & install the certificate.

Great, we've completed the certificate setup.

Viewing Airtable API requests via Proxyman

We're ready to send a request to the Airtable REST API, you may do this using your language/client of choice.

Here's an example of a logged request, we can inspect the URL, body, headers, response code, and more.

Edit and repeat

Now that we're able to inspect requests, let's look how we can modify and send them again.

Right click on a request and then select the "Edit and Repeat" option.

Now we can see details of the request which we can start modifying, go ahead and make some modifications to the body as an example.

Once we've made our desired edits we can hit "Send".

Now if we hop back to the logs we can see our request that we sent via edit and repeat.

Notice how requests sent via edit and repeat have a checkmark in the "Edited" column.

Wrapping up

There are many ways that you can debug your Airtable API requests locally such as writing your own Airtable proxy which you point your requests at.

Proxyman is a great tool for inspecting HTTP(s) traffic that you can get started with in no time and with minimal effort.