Every connection. Your call.

Connection details

Read the evidence behind the question.

Choose Show details or press ⌘I to open the technical details. Use the same control to hide them. The values are selectable.

• Show in Finder reveals the app bundle, or the executable itself when there is no bundle.
• Settings › Alerts › Alert Window › Details starts at Compact. Choose Full to open the details as soon as each alert appears.
• About this connection can add first use, earlier connections and blocks, other servers under the same domain, and a catalogue owner. While history loads, it says “Reading (App)’s connection history…”.
• The alert says how long ago the app tried to connect, from “just now” to minutes ago. Hold the pointer over it for the exact time.

Before you answer

What blocking would break

The button beside Block explains what blocking this connection is likely to stop: name lookups, Apple services, an app’s own server for sign-in and updates, or a known service. It ends with how to undo it: select the connection in the Network Monitor and allow it again.

The app itself

The app’s name opens a menu: Show Rules, Show in Network Monitor, Show in Finder, Activate (App), and Copy Name, Copy Signing ID or Copy Path.

Quit an app you didn’t expect

Quit… or Force Quit… from the same menu, after a confirmation. Outbound checks it is still the same process first. Quitting doesn’t answer the connection or make a rule.

An explanation, if you want one

Explain this connection asks Apple Intelligence on this Mac, or the provider you chose in Settings › Intelligence. For a provider that isn’t on your Mac, the alert first shows exactly what will be sent and to which provider, and nothing leaves until you choose Send. The explanation can be wrong and never answers the alert.

Whether the name is verified

The details say where the server’s name came from and whether a DNS answer for it returned this address. With Settings › Security › Only match host and domain rules on verified names on, a host or domain allow rule applies only to a verified name; block and ask rules still apply. It is on for new installs and stays off after an upgrade until you turn it on.

A changed app

When the code on disk no longer matches the copy a rule was approved for, What changed compares the signer, identifier and code you approved with the copy running now. Update Rule to This Version… makes the rule apply to the code running now after you confirm, and Undo puts it back.

Help › How to Read an Alert… walks through each part of the alert again whenever you want it.

The developer’s Internet Access Policy

Why the app connects

If an app ships an InternetAccessPolicy.plist that describes this connection, the alert quotes its Purpose. Optional port, protocol and direction conditions narrow which entry applies.

What blocking would break

If the policy includes DenyConsequences, the Block answer adds “The developer says:” and quotes them.

Whose words you see

These are the developer’s statements, shown only for code backed by a developer team identifier or Apple’s signature. The policy never decides the connection.

When there is no policy text

An absent policy, an entry without a purpose, or a policy that does not describe this connection adds no explanation.

Your answer

Choose how long, and how far.

Once leaves nothing behind. Every other choice saves a rule you can read, when Outbound can tell which program, session or startup it belongs to.

• The Port row is off while Remember is Once. It needs a service port and a narrower scope than Any server. Any server has no Port row, and Any port or protocol needs a known protocol.
• With a profile active, “Only while Home is active” keeps the rule to that profile. The box starts unticked, so a new answer applies in every profile. It is off for Once.
• If Outbound cannot identify the program or destination, only Once is available. Until Quit, Until Logout and Until Restart also need the matching process, login session or startup; without it, the answer applies once.
• The line under the pickers reads back what you are about to store, such as “for the next hour”, “on any port” or “every server under example.com”.
• A copy of an app that macOS runs from a temporary location, because it was opened where it was downloaded, can only be answered once. The alert says why.

Defaults and saved answers

Alerts start with

Settings › Alerts chooses the initial Remember value, Forever by default. A connection that cannot be remembered still starts at Once. When it is a timed choice, Default duration picks the length, from 5 minutes to 1 week.

Applying to

The default is Only that server. You can start with Its whole domain or Any connection instead. A domain default falls back to the server when there is no host name or the request is a DNS lookup.

Profile, port and protocol

Default profile scope starts each answer for every profile, or only while the active profile is active. Default port and protocol starts with this port and protocol, any port with this protocol, or any port and protocol. Your organization can set the duration, profile and port defaults for you.

Note, saved with the rule

The pencil opens a note field. Your text replaces “Created from alert”. Once creates no rule and has no note to save.

When it’s saved

A single answer needs no extra confirmation: when the alert closes, it’s saved. Answering all of an app’s requests posts one notification with Show Rule. If the filter is reconnecting, Outbound tells you once that your answers are waiting for it. If the rule cannot be saved, the alert says “The rule was not saved”: this connection was handled, and Outbound asks again next time.

When an organisation policy or the settings lock prevents saving rules, the pickers disappear. Block and Allow still answer this connection once.

Waiting alerts

One panel, even when apps ask at once.

A burst from one app stays one entry. When several apps wait, the Waiting list shows their requests in the same panel.

Choose an app

Each row names the app and host, DNS server or address, with a count when several requests from that app wait. The badge counts the total waiting requests. Select a row to bring that app forward.

Or one request

When more requests wait, the “N more…” menu lists each one under its app, with its server, port, protocol and direction, so you can answer any one of them first.

Block All or Allow All

When the current app has more requests waiting, these buttons answer them together. Or right-click its row for Allow All from (App) or Block All from (App).

One rule for any server

A remembered bulk answer stores one rule for the program and any destination, using the displayed lifetime. Once saves no rule. The other waiting connections receive the answer once.

Undo has a limit

When a rule was created, Undo removes it. It cannot recall traffic already allowed or bring back connections already blocked.

Answer later

Minimize (⌘M) shrinks the alert to a small panel that keeps counting down. Click it to answer. New requests join the queue; deadlines keep running. Turn on Settings › Alerts › Keep connection alerts minimized to have every new alert open that way.

More time

Stop Countdown asks for more time, once. The alert then shows when it will decide on its own.

Apps that quit

If an app quits while its alert waits, the alert says so. Answering still makes a rule for next time. Dismiss All Terminated clears every alert from apps that quit, and makes no rules.

When the queue fills

The filter holds up to 512 paused connections, 64 per program, and 128 open alerts. Excess connections are blocked immediately, rather than receiving the timeout answer. The panel retains at most 128 requests.

If you don’t answer

A deadline, then Review.

An alert can’t hold a connection forever. When time runs out the filter decides by itself, so the answer stands even if Outbound is busy or quitting.

The default timing

Settings › Alerts › If I do not answer chooses Allow once or Block once. Strict always blocks and disables this picker. Nothing is remembered at the deadline, and the next connection asks again. The gauge changes to “Already decided” and “Your answer sets a rule”: a late answer cannot change the connection already handled.

When nobody can answer

Without the background agent

Settings › Alerts offers Same as above (the default), Allow or Block. Same as above uses If I do not answer. Strict disables this picker too. Matching rules still decide.

A changed pinned program

A program that no longer matches the build pinned by its active path rule is blocked at the deadline, whatever the timeout choice. It is also blocked while the agent is absent.

Modes

Three modes. Your rules apply in all of them.

A mode only decides what no rule has decided. A new Mac starts in Learn, so the first hour brings no alerts.

Leaving Learn for Ask from the main window asks “Keep what Learn recorded?” Keep and Use Ask turns what Learn allowed into rules, so apps you already use don’t alert. Use Ask Without Keeping switches and drops the record.

The menu bar, Firewall › Mode and Settings › When an app connects switch directly, without the “Keep what Learn recorded?” question. Choose a mode ›

Review

Decide once for each app and destination.

Review groups repeated connections into one entry per app and destination. Group the list by app, domain, host or port, or not at all. Apps with the newest activity come first.

• Each entry keeps the server or address, port, protocol, incoming direction, connection count and times. Connections decided by a rule or answered in an alert do not enter Review.
• Allow or Block creates a permanent rule for one destination or the whole app, with the note “Created from Review”. A destination rule needs a host or address.
• When search or the verdict picker hides rows, a bulk answer makes rules only for destinations still shown. Dismiss an entry to remove it; Undo brings it back.
• Allow Verified Developers allows every shown connection from apps signed by a developer team or by Apple. Unsigned programs stay in the list.
• Review holds up to 5,000 destinations. When full, it drops the destination unseen longest.

Broader rules, and decisions that ended

One rule for a group

From a domain group, Allow All to the domain; from a port group, Block Port. Each makes one permanent rule for every app. Before you save, the sheet lists every app and connection it covers, including ones hidden by search, and Undo takes it back.

Temporary decisions that ended

A temporary allow or block that ran out appears above the list, with what it decided and for how long. Make Permanent saves it again as a permanent rule; Keep As Is leaves it ended.

Older blocklist exceptions

Exceptions that earlier versions made for every app are listed at the top. Review each one to choose its app; until you do, it keeps working as before.

Keyboard

Every alert shortcut, together.

Outbound’s alert shortcuts work while the alert is the key window. Answer with Return and Escape is on by default; turning it off leaves the other shortcuts available.

• Return and Esc wait for the 0.8-second delay and do nothing while an answer is being applied. ⌘1 always chooses Once; ⌘2 to ⌘4 need an answer that can be saved. The other shortcuts do not wait for the delay.
• Alerts do not take keyboard focus by default. Settings › Alerts › Alert Window has “Give alerts keyboard focus”, so Return, Escape and ⌘1–4 answer the active alert. When on, focus arrives 950 milliseconds after the panel appears. An alert already on screen does not take focus again on its own.
• Reset “Don’t Warn Again”, in the same settings, restores suppressed block warnings.