Clash Quick Start: From Importing a Subscription to Verifying It Works

STEP 00 / PREPARATION

Two things you need before you start

The entire flow depends on just two prerequisites — without either one you can't move forward:

• An installed Clash client: any platform works; we recommend grabbing Clash Plus or Clash Verge Rev from the download center. See the client comparison page for feature trade-offs between them.
• A subscription link: a URL starting with https:// provided by your proxy service, which returns a complete Clash config file (containing nodes, proxy groups, and routing rules). It's usually available to copy from your provider's dashboard — make sure to pick the Clash or Clash Meta format.

A subscription link is equivalent to an account credential — don't paste it anywhere public. The internal structure of the link (what the ports, proxy groups, and rule sections each do) doesn't affect the steps on this page; if you're curious, read the Profile structure breakdown in our technical notes later. Once you have both items, move to step one.

STEP 01 / 04

Import the subscription config

Launch the client and find the profiles page (Profiles / Subscriptions / Configuration Files) in the side nav or bottom tab bar. On first launch the list is empty; there's a URL input box at the top with an "Import" or "Download" button next to it.

1. Paste the full subscription link into the input box. Make sure there's no leading or trailing whitespace, and don't drop the https:// prefix — this is the most common cause of import failures.
2. Click "Import" (some clients label it "Download" or use a down-arrow icon). The client will request the URL and save the response as a local profile, usually taking 1–3 seconds.
3. On success, a new profile card appears in the list showing the profile name, traffic info (if provided by your service), and the update time. Click this card to make it the active profile — most clients show a selection marker or highlighted border on the active card.

Once the card is selected, the core has loaded the nodes and rules from this profile, and step one is done. If the import errors out (timeout, 404, unparseable format), first confirm the link opens correctly in a browser; if it still fails, work through the "Setup & Configuration" category in the FAQ item by item. Also note that when a subscription updates, its content gets overwritten by the new version pushed by your provider — that same page explains how to preserve custom edits if you need to.

STEP 02 / 04

Choose a proxy mode

With the profile loaded, the next thing to settle is how traffic gets routed. On the main overview or the Proxies page you'll see a mode switch, typically three options side by side:

• Rule: traffic is matched against the routing rules in the config file one by one — connections matching a direct rule bypass the proxy, everything else goes through the assigned proxy group. Keep this mode for daily use, as it balances speed and reachability.
• Global: all traffic is forced through the selected node, ignoring routing rules. Only useful for briefly testing whether a specific node works; leaving it on long-term routes even traffic that could go direct, slowing things down and burning through your data allowance.
• Direct: no traffic goes through the proxy at all. Useful for diagnosing "is this site issue actually caused by the proxy" — compare behavior between Direct and Rule mode to pinpoint the cause.

In practice, just click "Rule" — no further confirmation is needed, mode switches take effect immediately. For a full comparison of the three modes and typical scenarios for switching, see the proxy mode selection guide in our technical notes. Once you've confirmed Rule mode is active, move to step three.

STEP 03 / 04

Enable the system proxy and connect to a node

At this point the core is already listening on the local mixed port (default 7890), but system traffic isn't being routed there yet. Two things need to happen: turn on the system proxy, and pick a working node.

1. Go to the client's Settings page or home overview and find the "System Proxy" switch, then turn it on. This points your operating system's proxy settings to 127.0.0.1:7890, so traffic from your browser and most apps starts flowing through the client. The switch turning to its active color confirms success.
2. Switch to the Proxies page, where you'll see several policy groups as defined by the config file, each containing selectable nodes. Click the latency test button in a group (a lightning bolt or waveform icon) and wait for each node to show a latency value in milliseconds.
3. In the main policy group, select a node with normal latency (typically tens to a few hundred milliseconds; nodes showing timeout or blank are temporarily unavailable). A marker appears next to the selected item, and that group's outbound now switches to this node.

At this point the chain is complete: system traffic → local port 7890 → rule matching → selected node. Two extra notes: command-line tools and some games that don't respect system proxy settings need TUN mode to intercept their traffic — conditions and caveats are covered in the FAQ; if you want the client to launch automatically at startup, the "Tips & Tricks" category has setup steps for each platform.

STEP 04 / 04

Verify the proxy is working

Don't rely on a gut feeling — confirm the setup is actually working using two observable signals.

Signal one: the Connections panel shows traffic hitting the expected node. Open the client's Connections page, then visit any webpage in your browser. Back in the panel you should see new connection entries, each showing the target domain, the matched rule, and the actual proxy chain used. If connections to a site outside China show they're routed through the node you selected in step three, both the rules and the node are working correctly.

Signal two: a request through the local port succeeds. Run the following command in a terminal to force the request through the client's mixed port:

curl -x http://127.0.0.1:7890 -I https://www.gstatic.com/generate_204

Getting back HTTP/2 204 or HTTP/1.1 204 means the proxy chain is working; a hang or connection-refused error means the port isn't listening or the node is unreachable. You can also visit any IP lookup page in your browser — seeing an exit address in the node's region is the most direct confirmation.

Once both signals check out, the setup process is complete. If you run into localized issues like "the panel shows connections but pages won't load" or "the exit address changed but some apps still bypass the proxy," it's usually related to DNS resolution or an app's own proxy handling — DNS leak detection and fixes have a dedicated entry under "Troubleshooting" in the FAQ, and the mechanics and limits of Fake-IP mode are explained in the technical notes article.