Debug WebSockets
from the terminal.
Without the bloat.
cortlet-ws is a lightweight native macOS CLI for connecting to, inspecting, testing, and debugging WebSocket endpoints directly from your terminal.
PLATFORM
macOS
Native Swift binary
RUNTIME
None
No Node.js or Python required
FOCUS
WebSockets
Built for one job
Terminal first
Connect.
Watch.
Understand.
$ cortlet-ws connect wss://example.com/socket
[12:41:08.214] CONNECTING wss://example.com/socket
[12:41:08.347] CONNECTED 133 ms
[12:41:11.029] ← TEXT {"type":"welcome"}
[12:41:14.682] → TEXT {"type":"ping"}
[12:41:14.731] ← TEXT {"type":"pong"}
[12:41:14.731] LATENCY 49 msWhat you can inspect
The connection,
not just the payload.
Connection lifecycle
See when a connection starts, succeeds, fails, disconnects, and closes.
Incoming and outgoing frames
Watch text frames move in both directions directly from the terminal.
Latency
Measure connection timing and ping/pong response latency.
Close codes
See why a connection closed instead of guessing what happened.
Reconnect behavior
Test how an endpoint behaves when the connection drops and reconnects.
Native by design
No runtime.
No giant dependency tree.
cortlet-ws is built in Swift for macOS. The goal is a small, native binary you can download, run, and forget about.
LANGUAGE
Swift
Native macOS tooling
INSTALL
One binary
No package runtime required
DISTRIBUTION
Signed
Designed for notarized macOS releases
Planned commands
A small CLI.
A focused command set.
Open a WebSocket connection and inspect traffic.
Send a message to a WebSocket endpoint.
Measure ping/pong latency.
Watch connection lifecycle events and metadata.
Test disconnect and reconnect behavior.
Show the available cortlet-ws commands and usage examples.
Clear the playground terminal output.
Intentionally focused
Not another giant API client.
cortlet-ws is not trying to replace Postman, Insomnia, browser DevTools, or a full network inspection suite. It exists for one reason: make WebSocket debugging fast and obvious from the terminal.
Built for developers
Useful even if you never use Cortlet.
The CLI is designed as a standalone WebSocket debugging tool. You can use it against your own servers, managed gateways, local endpoints, or any standard WebSocket service.
Current status
We're building it now.
cortlet-ws is currently in development. The first public macOS release will focus on the core connection, frame inspection, latency, and reconnect workflow.
cortlet-ws