Shadowrocket Interface Guide: What Home, Config, Proxy, Direct, Data, and Settings Do

In this guide

Shadowrocket’s interface is easiest to understand in four groups: connection settings, routing configuration, app behavior, and traffic monitoring. This guide is for users who already have service details or a subscription but aren’t familiar with the English labels. Start by understanding the roles of Home and Config, then review the options under Global Routing, and finally use Data and Settings to troubleshoot. When the same English term appears in different places, use the page context to interpret it.

Home, Config, and Settings: Know where to go

Home is where you check connection status, select an existing connection, and add server details. Config manages routing configuration files, which can include rules and DNS settings. Settings controls app behavior, such as connection triggers under On Demand. These aren’t switches to turn on in sequence; each page manages a different part of the app.

Label	What it does	When to check it
`Home`	Connection status, saved servers, and options for adding connections and subscriptions.	When entering details for the first time, switching connections, or running a connection test.
`Config`	Configuration files and their routing, DNS, and other settings.	When importing an existing rule configuration or checking which configuration is active.
`Settings`	App behavior and related options.	When checking On Demand or subscription update behavior.
`Data`	Displays related to data usage or traffic statistics.	When checking for traffic during a connection or reviewing the statistics range.

Data isn’t a general-purpose server configuration page, nor should it be assumed to be a fixed tab alongside Home, Config, and Settings. When you see Data, check the statistics section and units. Total, uploaded, and downloaded data refer to usage—not server passwords or rule contents. The location and details of these options may vary; refer to the current interface.

Proxy, Direct, Config, and Scene: Understand routing modes

Open Global Routing from Home to find Proxy, Direct, Config, and Scene. These are routing modes, not protocol types. In the connection settings, Type is where you select a protocol such as Shadowsocks, VMess, VLESS, Trojan, Hysteria2, or WireGuard. Switching Global Routing to Proxy does not change a Trojan connection into another protocol.

4 options

Global Routing：Proxy / Direct / Config / Scene

3 strategies

Rule strategies covered in this guide: PROXY / DIRECT / REJECT

2 categories

Check these separately: connection details and routing configuration

The guidance below assumes you already have a working connection and have checked your rule configuration. Proxy and Direct are useful for temporary comparisons, but neither guarantees a successful connection. Access to a destination also depends on the network, server details, and destination itself. Scene depends on the configured scenario and its conditions; don’t infer its current behavior from the label alone.

Config

Recommended use

The active configuration’s rules determine how requests are handled. It isn’t always “some traffic through a proxy, everything else direct”; the outcome also depends on rule order and FINAL.

Best for: users who have checked their configuration and want rules to handle requests by destination.

Proxy

Routes intercepted requests through the proxy instead of selecting a route rule by rule from Config. The active proxy connection and its settings still need to be correct.

Best for: temporarily checking whether routing rules affect access to a particular destination.

Direct

Routes intercepted requests directly. Whether the app’s connection switch is on and whether a request goes through a proxy server are separate questions.

Best for: comparing whether the same destination is reachable directly on your current network.

Scene

Routing behavior depends on the settings for the selected scenario. First check the configured scenarios and their conditions; Scene is not another name for Config.

Best for: users who have configured a scenario and understand when it applies.

Add an existing subscription from Home: fields and steps

Subscribe is an import type for subscriptions; Config is for managing configuration files. They aren’t the same just because both can import a link. Subscriptions are generally used to update a saved server list, while routing configurations describe how requests are handled. Check the service’s documentation and the import results to confirm what it provides.

Open Home

Open Home, tap “+” in the upper-right corner, then choose Add Server. First check whether you have a complete subscription URL or individual connection details such as Address, Port, and Password.
Choose a type

For a subscription URL, select Type → Subscribe. For an individual connection, choose the protocol used by your service. Don’t paste a subscription URL into the Address field for a single connection.
Enter the details and save

Paste your complete subscription URL into the URL field for Subscribe, add a note to help identify it, and save. Keep the URL’s path and query parameters intact; don’t alter or remove access credentials.
Refresh and select a connection

Return to Home and pull down to refresh the subscription. Check that server entries appear, then select an existing connection. Adding the subscription, saving it, and successfully retrieving its contents are three separate things to verify.
Check settings and connect

On Home, check Global Routing and select a mode that matches your prepared configuration, then turn on the connection. If the system asks to authorize a VPN configuration for the first time, verify the app name and follow the system prompts.

For individual connection details, Address is the server address and Port is the port number. Password is one possible authentication field; whether it appears and how to fill it depend on the protocol. For example, if your existing Trojan details specify port 443, enter 443. Don’t change a service-provided port such as 8443 to 443 just because TLS commonly uses 443. Verify the protocol, port, and authentication details together.

The Config page and Config mode: A file isn’t a switch

The two uses of Config are easy for beginners to confuse: the Config page is for managing files, while setting Global Routing to Config tells routing to follow the active configuration. Importing a configuration does not mean it’s currently being used for routing. Check which file is active and which mode Global Routing is set to.

Check these separately: configuration file and routing mode

Config page

Review existing configuration files and confirm which one is active.
Check rule order, strategy names, and FINAL.
Keep a recoverable copy of the original configuration before editing.

Home → Global Routing

Check whether the current mode is Config, Proxy, Direct, or Scene.
If you want rules to handle routing, verify that the mode is Config.
After temporary testing, restore the mode you were using before.

First check which file is active, then confirm whether routing follows that file, and finally review which rules matched specific requests.

Rule keywords should also remain in English. DOMAIN-SUFFIX matches domain suffixes; IP-CIDR matches address ranges; GEOIP matches IP geolocation data, not the device’s location; FINAL handles requests that did not match earlier rules. Rules are generally evaluated from top to bottom, and the first match determines the strategy. Put specific exceptions before broader rules that could match them.

[Rule]
DOMAIN-SUFFIX,example.com,PROXY
IP-CIDR,192.168.0.0/16,DIRECT
FINAL,DIRECT

This rule snippet illustrates the syntax; it is not a complete configuration. The first rule sends example.com and its subdomains through PROXY. The second matches the private 192.168.0.0/16 range. FINAL,DIRECT handles the remaining requests. PROXY, DIRECT, and REJECT are rule strategy keywords meaning proxy, direct connection, and reject. The interface labels Proxy and Direct should be understood in the context of Global Routing.

Data and On Demand: Separate statistics, triggers, and routing

Data statistics help you monitor traffic; they aren’t a general lookup for a service provider’s remaining allowance. The bytes received by the app and the way a provider calculates plan usage—by billing period, multiplier, or other method—are different measurements. Connection tests, subscription updates, and background requests on the device may also use data. An increase in Data alone does not prove that a particular webpage loaded successfully.

Check the units first: A cumulative byte total and a rate measured “per second” are different metrics. Don’t use a total to judge current speed.
Then check the range: Confirm whether the figure covers a connection, a time period, or cumulative usage. Compare readings over the same range.
Finally, check the request: On the same network, try opening the destination again and review connection records to understand the route and any errors. Don’t rely only on whether the numbers change.

Settings → On Demand controls when a connection starts based on specified conditions; it does not set a domain’s strategy to PROXY. To route a particular destination according to a strategy, check the rules in Config. To find out why a connection returns after you manually disconnect, check the On Demand conditions. Record the original settings before making changes, and change one item at a time so you can link each change to its result.

What you want to check	Where to look	Don’t confuse it with
When a connection starts automatically	Settings → On Demand	Trigger conditions are not domain routing rules.
Whether requests follow the configuration	Home → Global Routing	A file on the Config page doesn’t mean the current mode is Config.
Which strategy a destination ultimately uses	Current Config rules and connection records	Selecting a server doesn’t mean every request uses PROXY.
Whether data is being transferred	Data statistics	Cumulative traffic does not prove a destination was reached or show the remaining plan allowance.

Common questions about interface labels: Find the right page

Keep the current state unchanged while troubleshooting: note the selected connection, Global Routing mode, active configuration, and network. The questions below address each task separately. Avoid changing several things across Home, Config, and Settings at once, or it will be hard to tell which setting affected the result.

A server appears in Home. Why can’t I connect?

A saved entry only confirms that the details were stored. Select the connection and run Connectivity Test, then check the connection switch, Home → Global Routing, and authentication details. A response to the test doesn’t guarantee that every destination is reachable; check the route and any error message for the specific destination.

I imported a Config file. Why didn’t my rule changes take effect?

First, confirm in Config that you edited the active file. Then go to Home → Global Routing and make sure the mode is Config. Save the changes and make a new request. Existing long-lived connections may not reflect the updated rule match.

I saved a subscription, but no servers appeared. What should I check?

Return to Home, pull down to refresh, confirm Type is set to Subscribe and the URL is complete, then check for an update error. If updating the subscription requires an existing working proxy, check Settings → Subscribe → Update via Proxy. Enabling that option alone won’t help if you don’t have a working connection.

Does Direct mean the connection is disconnected?

No. Home → Global Routing → Direct means requests use a direct connection; the connection switch is a separate setting. To check whether a VPN connection is active, look at the connection status. To see whether a request uses a proxy, check the mode, configuration, and request record.

The connection starts again after I turn it off. Should I change the rules?

First, go to Settings → On Demand and review the enabled conditions. Once you’ve confirmed what they’re for, temporarily disable the relevant trigger to compare the behavior. DOMAIN-SUFFIX, IP-CIDR, and FINAL control request routing; they aren’t substitutes for the automatic connection trigger settings.

Now that you know what each page does, follow this order: check connection details and status in Home, routing mode in Global Routing, files and rules in Config, and trigger behavior in Settings. Then review Data and connection records. This lets you verify separately whether an entry is saved, a connection is active, traffic is routed through a proxy, and a destination is reachable—instead of treating one switch as proof of all four.