Clash Quickstart: From Importing a Subscription to Verifying It Works
This page does one thing: walk you through setting up a Clash client for the first time in about ten minutes. The process is fixed at four steps — import subscription → choose proxy mode → turn on the connection → verify it works — and each step tells you exactly where to click, what you'll see, and what comes next. Follow along and your client will be ready for daily use by the end. To understand the reasoning behind every concept and pick up more advanced techniques, head to the full manual, a longer linear guide that takes you from zero to proficient.
A note on interface differences: this guide's click paths are based on Clash Verge Rev (Windows / macOS / Linux). Other clients use slightly different labels — in Clash Plus, "Subscriptions" is called Profiles and "Proxies" stays Proxies; ClashX Meta has no main window at all, everything is done from the dropdown under the menu-bar icon on macOS; on FlClash and Clash Meta for Android, mode and node selection are merged into the home screen. The names differ, but the main thread — import → choose mode → connect → verify — is identical across every client. Just map the wording to the meaning as you go.
Before you start: a client and a subscription link
Before diving in, you need two things ready: an installed Clash client, and a subscription link. If you already have both, skip straight to step one.
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Install a Clash client
Head to the downloads page and pick the build for your operating system. On desktop (Windows / macOS / Linux), Clash Verge Rev is recommended — it's built on the mihomo core, updated frequently, and has a fully translated interface. If you want the same client across your phone and computer, Clash Plus covers every platform. Installation is like any other app; defaults are fine throughout.
On Windows, the first time you run the installer you may see a blue SmartScreen warning — that's the standard block for apps from unverified publishers; click "More info → Run anyway" to proceed. On macOS, if you're told the app is from an unidentified developer, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click "Open Anyway" near the bottom of the page. Both prompts are covered in more detail in the Installation & Setup category of the FAQ.
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Get your subscription link
A subscription link is a long URL starting with
https://, provided by whichever service you're using. It's usually on your provider's dashboard or "My Subscriptions" page, next to a button like "Copy Subscription" or "Copy Clash Link." Just click to copy it to your clipboard — there's no need to open the link and look at it.Be sure to distinguish a "subscription link" from a "single node share link": the former points to a full config and brings in every node and rule at once when imported; the latter is just one node and doesn't work with the import flow in this guide. If you're still not sure what a subscription is or where it comes from, the Basics category of the FAQ explains it in detail.
Client installed, link in hand — now for step one: getting the subscription into the client.
Step 1: Import the subscription and activate the profile
The goal of this step is to get your config file into the client. A Clash client on its own comes with zero nodes — every node, group, and routing rule comes from the YAML config downloaded via your subscription. So importing the subscription is the foundation everything else builds on.
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Open the subscription management page
Launch Clash Verge Rev and click "Subscriptions" in the left-hand sidebar. The main area shows an empty subscription list with an input box and an "Import" button at the top. Clash Plus users should click the Profiles tab at the bottom or side; ClashX Meta users click the cat-shaped menu-bar icon, choose "Config → Managed Config → Manage," then click "Add" in the window that pops up; mobile clients typically show an "Add Subscription / New Profile" entry right on the home screen.
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Paste the link and click Import
Click the input box, paste in the subscription link you copied earlier, double-check it's complete (starts with
https://, with no truncation or stray spaces in the middle), then click "Import." The client immediately requests that URL to download the config — this usually finishes in a second or two on a normal connection, and the button may briefly show a loading state. -
Confirm the import succeeded
A successful import shows up as a new profile card in the subscription list, usually displaying the profile name and last-updated time; if your provider includes usage info in the response, you'll also see a progress bar for data used and expiry date. Seeing the card means the config file is now fully saved locally.
If you get an error at this step — timeout, 404, and parsing failures are the common ones — first check that the link was copied in full and that your local network is working. If it still fails, the issue is most likely on the subscription's end; go through the Troubleshooting category of the FAQ and match the error type there rather than getting stuck here.
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Activate this profile
A newly imported profile isn't necessarily enabled automatically. Click the card to select it (in Clash Verge Rev, a selected card gets a highlighted border in the accent color on its left edge). Once selected, the core runs on this profile, and the "Proxies" page on the left will show every group and node it contains. If this is your only subscription, this step is often already done for you — but getting into the habit of confirming activation after each import will save you confusion once you have multiple profiles.
Subscription links can stop working if your provider changes them, so clients support auto-updating subscriptions on a fixed interval. You can skip this for now during your first setup, but for regular use it's worth setting the update interval to around 24 hours in the profile's settings. See the subscription-update entries in the FAQ for what each toggle does.
The profile is active and there are nodes in the client now. But nothing about your traffic has changed yet — next you need to tell Clash which traffic should go through the proxy, and through which node.
Step 2: Choose a proxy mode and node
Clash has three operating modes that determine how traffic gets routed. Pick the right one and you can mostly forget about it afterward; pick the wrong one and you'll run into strange issues like "it says connected but pages won't load" or "every request takes the long way round" — so it's worth taking a minute to get this right.
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Understand the three modes, then choose Rule
On the Clash Verge Rev home page (the first item in the left sidebar), you'll see three mode buttons: Rule / Global / Direct. Rule mode automatically decides based on the routing rules in your profile — traffic matching direct-connect rules (like sites hosted in mainland China) goes straight out, everything else goes through the proxy; this is the recommended choice for daily use. Global mode sends absolutely everything through a proxy node with no exceptions, useful only for troubleshooting or specific edge cases. Direct mode effectively disables the proxy logic entirely. Click "Rule" so it becomes highlighted/selected.
ClashX Meta lets you switch this from the "Outbound Mode" submenu in its menu-bar dropdown; mobile clients usually have the same option on the home screen or in settings. For a deeper look at how the three modes differ and when to use each, see the proxy modes chapter of the full manual — for now, just select "Rule" and keep moving.
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Go to the Proxies page and learn what a policy group is
Click "Proxies" in the left sidebar and you'll see several groups, each with a list of nodes underneath — these are policy groups. Common group names like "Proxy Select," "Auto Select," or "Streaming" come from whatever your subscription's config defines. Usually the only one you care about is the manual selection group at the top — it decides which node your proxied traffic ultimately exits through.
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Run a latency test and pick a node
Click the lightning bolt or waveform icon in the top-right corner of a policy group to run a latency test. Within a few seconds, each node shows a number in milliseconds — lower is faster, and nodes showing a timeout are currently unavailable. Click a low-latency node in the manual selection group to select it; if there's an "Auto Select" style url-test group, you can select that instead and the core will automatically switch to whichever node is currently fastest.
Why latency-testing works the way it does, and why a low-latency node can sometimes still stutter on video, is beyond the scope of getting started — if you're curious, the full manual covers it.
Mode set to Rule, node picked — Clash itself is ready to go. But your browser doesn't yet know to hand its traffic over to it. The last missing piece is a single switch: the system proxy.
Step 3: Turn on the system proxy and connect
The "System Proxy" switch works by pointing your operating system's proxy settings at the local port Clash listens on (by default 127.0.0.1:7890). Flip it on and your browser, along with most apps that respect system proxy settings, will automatically route traffic through Clash.
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Turn on the System Proxy switch
Back on the Clash Verge Rev home page, find the "System Proxy" switch (it sits alongside toggles like "TUN Mode") and click it on. Once it's highlighted in the accent color, it's active — the taskbar/menu-bar tray icon usually changes too to reflect the state. On ClashX Meta, check "Set as System Proxy" in the menu-bar dropdown; on mobile clients, it's the most prominent start button on the home screen — tapping it will prompt you to approve a VPN tunnel, which you should accept.
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Handle any system prompts
Windows may show a firewall prompt the first time you turn this on, asking whether to allow the app network access — check both Private and Public networks, then click "Allow access." On macOS, if you're asked to authorize proxy settings, enter your password once to approve it. These prompts only appear the first time; after that, the switch works instantly whenever you toggle it.
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Two optional settings (leave them alone for now)
Near the home page you'll also see "Launch on Startup" and "TUN Mode" switches. The former starts the client automatically with your system, and it's worth turning on for everyday use; the latter is a virtual network adapter that takes over all traffic (including command-line tools and games that ignore system proxy settings), and comes with more configuration involved — skip it for your first setup and follow the TUN chapter in the full manual when you actually need it.
At this point the whole chain is in place: the subscription provides nodes and rules, Rule mode handles the routing, and the system proxy feeds traffic in. Last step — confirm it's actually working.
Step 4: Verify the proxy is working
Don't just assume everything's fine because the switch is green — verification only takes a minute, confirms the whole chain from browser to node is actually working, and helps you quickly pinpoint where things broke if something's wrong.
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Visit a target website
Open your browser and go to a site you couldn't previously reach directly. In Rule mode, domains like this should match the proxy rule and exit through your selected node; if the page loads normally, the chain is basically working. At the same time, open a regular local site to confirm it still loads instantly — that's rule-based routing doing its job: direct traffic stays direct, proxied traffic gets proxied.
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Check the live connection log
Back in the client, open the "Connections" page in the left sidebar. Refresh the page you just opened and new entries should scroll in live, each showing the target domain, the rule it matched, and the node (or DIRECT) it actually used. If the target site's domain went through a proxy node and your local site shows DIRECT, both the mode and the rules are working as expected. This page is also your first stop later on when troubleshooting "why isn't this site going through the proxy."
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Confirm the exit IP (optional)
For more direct proof, search "what is my IP" in your browser and open any IP lookup site — the address shown should match the node's region, not your local ISP's IP. Switch to a different node and refresh, and the IP should change accordingly, confirming node switching works too.
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If it's not working
Check these three things in order: ① is the System Proxy switch actually on; ② is the current mode set to "Rule" and does the selected node in the manual group pass its latency test without timing out; ③ is the subscription profile actually activated (go back to step one and confirm the card is selected). If all three check out and pages still won't load, it's most likely a node issue or a local network restriction — try a different node, or check the Troubleshooting category of the FAQ and match your symptoms against the entries there, which cover the vast majority of errors people hit during first-time setup.
All four steps done — the client is now ready for daily use. From here on, regular use boils down to two things: occasionally switching nodes on the Proxies page, and keeping the subscription auto-updated.
What to read next
This page covers the shortest path to "get it working." If you want to understand how routing rules are written, turn on TUN mode to capture all traffic, share your proxy with phones and TVs on your home network, or build a stable long-term maintenance routine, the full manual covers all of it in order — Core Concepts → Choosing a Client → Installation → Subscriptions → Modes → Routing → TUN → Ongoing Maintenance. If you haven't installed a client yet, go back to the downloads page and pick the version for your platform first.