Babyshark – Wireshark made easy (terminal UI for PCAPs)
Hey all, I built babyshark, a terminal UI for PCAPs aimed at people who find Wireshark powerful but overwhelming. The goal is “PCAPs for humans”: Overview dashboard answers what’s happening + what to click next Domains view (hostnames first) → select a domain → jump straight to relevant flows (works even when DNS is encrypted/cached by using observed IPs from flows) Weird stuff view surfaces common failure/latency signals (retransmits/out-of-order hints, resets, handshake issues, DNS failures when visible) From there you can drill down: Flows → Packets → Explain (plain-English…
In plain words
Babyshark is a terminal-based interface for analyzing network packet captures (PCAPs), designed for users who find Wireshark complex. It offers an overview dashboard, domains view for hostname-based navigation, and a "weird stuff" detector that flags common network issues like retransmits, connection resets, and DNS failures. Users can drill down from flows to individual packets with plain-English explanations. It works with saved capture files or live traffic via tshark, supporting encrypted DNS by correlating observed IPs.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hey all, I built babyshark, a terminal UI for PCAPs aimed at people who find Wireshark powerful but overwhelming. The goal is “PCAPs for humans”: Overview dashboard answers what’s happening + what to click next Domains view (hostnames first) → select a domain → jump straight to relevant flows (works even when DNS is encrypted/cached by using observed IPs from flows) Weird stuff view surfaces common failure/latency signals (retransmits/out-of-order hints, resets, handshake issues, DNS failures when visible) From there you can drill down: Flows → Packets → Explain (plain-English hints) / follow stream Commands: Offline: babyshark --pcap capture.pcap Live (requires tshark): babyshark --list-ifaces then babyshark --live en0 Repo + v0.1.0 release: https://github.com/vignesh07/babyshark Would love feedback on UX + what “weird detectors” you’d want next.
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