httpx CLI Playbook

Official docs:

• https://docs.projectdiscovery.io/opensource/httpx/usage
• https://docs.projectdiscovery.io/opensource/httpx/running
• https://github.com/projectdiscovery/httpx

Canonical syntax: httpx [flags]

High-signal flags:

• -u, -target <url> single target
• -l, -list <file> target list
• -nf, -no-fallback probe both HTTP and HTTPS
• -nfs, -no-fallback-scheme do not auto-switch schemes
• -sc status code
• -title page title
• -server, -web-server server header
• -td, -tech-detect technology detection
• -fr, -follow-redirects follow redirects
• -mc <codes> / -fc <codes> match or filter status codes
• -path <path_or_file> probe specific paths
• -p, -ports <ports> probe custom ports
• -proxy, -http-proxy <url> proxy target requests
• -tlsi, -tls-impersonate experimental TLS impersonation
• -j, -json JSONL output
• -sr, -store-response store request/response artifacts
• -srd, -store-response-dir <dir> custom directory for stored artifacts
• -silent compact output
• -rl <n> requests/second cap
• -t <n> threads
• -timeout <seconds> request timeout
• -retries <n> retry attempts
• -o <file> output file

Agent-safe baseline for automation: httpx -l hosts.txt -sc -title -server -td -fr -timeout 10 -retries 1 -rl 50 -t 25 -silent -j -o httpx.jsonl

Common patterns:

• Quick live+fingerprint check:

httpx -l hosts.txt -sc -title -server -td -silent -o httpx.txt

• Probe known admin paths:

httpx -l hosts.txt -path /,/login,/admin -sc -title -silent -j -o httpx_paths.jsonl

• Probe both schemes explicitly:

httpx -l hosts.txt -nf -sc -title -silent

• Vhost detection pass:

httpx -l hosts.txt -vhost -sc -title -silent -j -o httpx_vhost.jsonl

• Proxy-instrumented probing:

httpx -l hosts.txt -sc -title -proxy http://127.0.0.1:48080 -silent -j -o httpx_proxy.jsonl

• Response-storage pass for downstream content parsing:

httpx -l hosts.txt -fr -sr -srd recon/httpx_store -sc -title -server -cl -ct -location -probe -silent

Critical correctness rules:

• For machine parsing, prefer -j -o <file>.
• Keep -rl and -t explicit for reproducible throughput.
• Use -nf when you need dual-scheme probing from host-only input.
• When using -path or -ports, keep scope tight to avoid accidental scan inflation.
• Use -sr -srd <dir> when later steps need raw response artifacts (JS/route extraction, grepping, replay).

Usage rules:

• Use -silent for pipeline-friendly output.
• Use -mc/-fc when downstream steps depend on specific response classes.
• Prefer -proxy flag over global proxy env vars when only httpx traffic should be proxied.
• Do not use -h/--help for routine runs unless absolutely necessary.

Failure recovery:

• If too many timeouts occur, reduce -rl/-t and/or increase -timeout.
• If output is noisy, add -fc filters or -fd duplicate filtering.
• If HTTPS-only probing misses HTTP services, rerun with -nf (and avoid -nfs).

If uncertain, query web_search with: site:docs.projectdiscovery.io httpx <flag> usage