Stops your apps the moment your connection stops being the one you trusted.
A small macOS app that watches the connection your chosen applications are using. If the VPN drops, the proxy changes, or your traffic starts leaving from somewhere else, the protected apps are frozen within milliseconds and closed if the change is confirmed — before they can say anything over the new connection.
macOS 13 or newer · Apple Silicon and Intel · 3.4 MB · no dependencies
Anyone whose work depends on traffic leaving through a particular connection: a VPN, a proxy, or a specific network. IP Guardian does not create that connection — it makes sure your apps stop using the internet the instant that connection is no longer the one you approved.
- Download
IP Guardian.zipfrom the latest release. - Unzip it and drag IP Guardian into your Applications folder.
- Open it. macOS refuses the first launch and says "IP Guardian" can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software — that is the message for any app without a paid Apple Developer signature, and it is expected here. Press OK, then go to System Settings › Privacy & Security and press Open Anyway. macOS asks only once.
To remove it, quit the app and drag it to the Trash.
- Add the applications you want protected — a browser, a chat client, anything that must not talk over the wrong connection.
- Choose a rule and, for Same Country, the countries you allow.
- Close those applications, then press Start Protection. The trusted connection is established while nothing is sending traffic.
From then on your apps run normally until something changes. Turning Protection off on a verified connection simply leaves them running — ending a session never costs unsaved work.
Exact IP — the strictest. The public address has to stay exactly what it was when Protection started. Best when your VPN or proxy gives you one stable exit.
Same Country — the address may change as often as it likes, as long as the connection stays in one of up to three countries you choose. Best when your VPN or proxy moves between exits: a VPN left on automatic, or a proxy that answers from several exits at once.
Whichever rule you pick, the route itself is always watched. If the VPN or proxy drops, your apps are closed regardless. The rule is fixed once Protection starts, so a session cannot be loosened while it is running.
The public address is only part of it. The connection you trusted also covers:
- 🌍 The public IPv4 address, or the confirmed country, depending on your rule
- 🧩 The system proxy configuration
- 🔀 The default IPv4 and IPv6 interfaces
- 🖧 The physical network interface
- 🔒 VPN tunnel interfaces used by the default IPv4 or IPv6 route
- 🧭 The public IPv6 network your Mac is on
- 🚨 Direct IPv6 paths that could slip past the VPN or proxy
If the route changes, that counts as a changed connection even when the public address stays exactly the same — a VPN dropping while your address is briefly cached looks identical from the outside, and it is not.
Freezes first, asks questions second. The moment the network changes, your protected apps are frozen — before anything is known about the new connection. Checking happens while they are already stopped, not before.
Never closes an app on a guess. A timeout, an unreachable service or a brief outage never closes anything. Apps wait, frozen, until the connection is verified again.
Agreement, then confirmation. Separate services have to agree on what they see, and a change has to be confirmed repeatedly before a single application is closed.
Survives its own failure. If IP Guardian is force quit or crashes while your apps are frozen, they are released automatically. Nothing stays stuck.
Country flags ship inside the app, so showing one costs no request. Your protected applications, the rule you chose and the countries you allowed are stored on this Mac and nowhere else. The activity list never leaves memory, and the trusted connection is never written to disk — every launch starts with Protection off.
Confirming a connection does mean reaching services on the internet. Each one it
asks sees the public address your traffic is leaving from, and a plain
IPGuardian/1 user agent. No account, no identifier, and nothing about you or
your applications: that is the whole of what leaves this Mac.
It is not a firewall. IP Guardian reacts quickly, but it cannot guarantee that zero packets leave between a network change and the apps being stopped. A true zero-packet kill switch needs a system firewall or a Network Extension.
A restricted network can stop verification. Confirming the connection means reaching several separate services on the internet. Individual failures are tolerated, but behind a network or proxy that carries only part of it, too few can be reached to agree, and verification fails even while ordinary browsing works. Nothing is closed when that happens: the apps stay frozen and verification keeps retrying.
Closing apps is a force close. When a connection is confirmed unsafe, the protected apps are closed without being allowed to run again first — that is the point, but unsaved work in them is lost.
Requires Apple's Command Line Tools. Full Xcode is not needed.
xcode-select --install
bash ./build_app.shThis writes dist/IP Guardian.app and a shareable dist/IP Guardian.zip, built
for both Apple Silicon and Intel. Drag the app into your Applications folder the
same way as a downloaded copy.
MIT — see LICENSE.
Developed by Amir Mokhtari · dev.mokhtari@gmail.com