Outline Client

January 7, 2026 · View on GitHub

Build and Test

The Outline Client is a cross-platform VPN or proxy client for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Debian-based Linux. The Outline Client is designed for use with the Outline Server software, but it is fully compatible with any Shadowsocks server.

The client's user interface is implemented in Polymer 2.0. Platform support is provided by Cordova and Electron, with additional native components in this repository.

Requirements for all builds

All builds require Node 22 (lts/hydrogen), and Go 1.22 installed in addition to other per-platform requirements.

💡 NOTE: if you have nvm installed, run nvm use to switch to the correct node version!

After cloning this repo, install all node dependencies:

npm install

Building the shared web app

Outline clients share the same web app across all platforms. This code is located in the web directory. If you are making changes to the shared web app and do not need to test platform-specific functionality, you can test in a desktop browser by running:

npm run action client/web/start

The latter command will open a browser instance running the app. Browser platform development will use fake servers to test successful and unsuccessful connections.

The app logic is located in web/app. UI components are located in web/ui_components. If you want to work specifically on an individual UI element, try the storybook!:

npm run action storybook

Note

Every script in this repository can be run with npm run action - for a CLI-like experience, add something like

alias outline="npm run action"

(you can call it whatever you like)

to your shell, then try outline www/start!

Passing configuration flags to actions

Certain actions take configuration flags - but since we're running them through npm, you'll have to use the -- seperator to funnel them through to the underlying process. For example, to set up a MacOS project in release mode, you'd run:

SENTRY_DSN=<your sentry dsn> npm run action client/src/cordova/setup macos -- --buildMode=release --versionName=<your version name>

Life of a Packet

How does the Outline Client work?

Accepting a server invite

Looking for instructions on how to accept a server invite?

Platform-specific development

Each platform is handled differently:

  1. Developing for Apple (MacOS and iOS)
  2. Developing for Android
  3. Developing for Electron (Windows and Linux)

Error reporting

To enable error reporting through Sentry for local builds, run:

export SENTRY_DSN=[Sentry development API key]
[platform-specific build command]

Release builds on CI are configured with a production Sentry API key.