Rule Providers

A rule provider is a named list of domains, IP ranges or rules, kept outside the main rules: list and referenced with RULE-SET,<name>,<target>.

rule-providers:
  streaming:
    type: http
    behavior: domain
    format: mrs
    url: https://example.com/rules/streaming.mrs
    interval: 86400

  private-ip:
    type: http
    behavior: ipcidr
    format: text
    url: https://example.com/rules/private.txt

  my-rules:
    type: inline
    behavior: classical
    payload:
      - DOMAIN-SUFFIX,example.com
      - IP-CIDR,192.0.2.0/24,no-resolve

rules:
  - RULE-SET,streaming,Streaming
  - RULE-SET,private-ip,DIRECT,no-resolve
  - RULE-SET,my-rules,Proxy
  - MATCH,Proxy

Options

Key	Type	Default	Description
type	string	required	http or inline. See Types.
behavior	string	required	domain, ipcidr or classical.
format	string	yaml	yaml, text or mrs.
url	string	—	Download URL (http type).
interval	int (seconds)	86400	How long a downloaded copy counts as fresh. Minimum 60.
payload	list	—	The entries (inline type).
path	string	—	Ignored. MeowX manages the cache location itself.

proxy, size-limit and other mihomo provider options are ignored.

Types

type	Status
http	Supported. Downloaded and cached by MeowX; see Downloading and caching.
inline	Supported. Entries come from payload.
file	Not supported. MeowX can’t read files from your file system path; a file provider never loads, and rules referencing it never match. Use inline or host the file and use http.

Behaviors

domain

Each entry is a domain pattern:

Pattern	Matches
example.com	Exactly example.com.
*.example.com	Exactly one level of subdomain: a.example.com, not b.a.example.com and not example.com.
+.example.com	example.com and all subdomains (like DOMAIN-SUFFIX).
.example.com	All subdomains, but not example.com itself.

ipcidr

Each entry is an IPv4 or IPv6 range (192.0.2.0/24, 2001:db8::/32); a bare address means a single host. One invalid entry makes the whole provider fail to load.

Rules using an ipcidr provider need the destination IP, so no-resolve applies as for IP-CIDR; see Rules → no-resolve.

classical

Each entry is a rule without a target, for example DOMAIN-SUFFIX,example.com, IP-CIDR,192.0.2.0/24,no-resolve or DST-PORT,443. The supported rule types and their syntax are the same as in Rules. Notes:

• An entry with an unknown rule type makes the whole provider fail to load (the rest of the configuration is unaffected).
• RULE-SET inside a classical provider never matches.
• GEOSITE inside a classical provider only matches if the same category is also used by a top-level rule or by dns.nameserver-policy, because only those categories are loaded from the GeoSite database.
• IP entries without no-resolve make MeowX resolve the domain of fake-ip connections, exactly like top-level IP rules.

Formats

format	Content
yaml	A YAML document with a payload: list. An empty payload: is valid (zero entries).
text	One entry per line. Empty lines are skipped; text after # or // is a comment.
mrs	mihomo’s compressed binary rule-set format. Supported for domain and ipcidr behaviors only (mihomo can’t produce classical MRS either). The behavior in the file must match behavior.

Downloading and caching

http providers are downloaded by MeowX and cached on the device. When the tunnel starts, it loads the cached copies.

• When you activate or refresh a subscription, providers are downloaded in the background.
• When you connect, MeowX waits only for providers that have no cached copy yet (for example the first time you use a subscription), for at most 8 seconds. Providers that already have a cached copy — even an expired one — don’t delay the connection.
• After connecting, providers whose copy is older than interval are refreshed in the background. The refreshed copies are used from the next connection.
• A copy is considered fresh only if it is younger than interval and still parses. A damaged cached file is downloaded again.
• A download is accepted only if the server answers with a 2xx status, the body isn’t empty, and the content parses as the declared behavior and format. Anything else — including an HTML login or error page from a captive portal — is discarded and the previous cached copy is kept.
• Requests use the User-Agent clash.meta/1.0 (MeowX) and time out after 20 seconds.

If a provider can’t be loaded when the tunnel starts (never downloaded, or unparseable), the app’s log shows a warning naming it, and rules referencing it don’t match until it loads; the rest of the configuration works normally.

Tip

Prefer mrs (or text) for large domain lists. They load faster and use less memory than classical providers, which matters on iPhone where the tunnel has a tight memory limit.