Install dnscrypt-proxy with Homebrew, apk, chocolatey, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, winget, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• dnscrypt-proxy

Project history

The project grew out of DNSCrypt, a protocol for authenticating communication between DNS clients and resolvers. The DNSCrypt project documents the protocol as a way to protect DNS traffic from spoofing and tampering, and dnscrypt-proxy became the practical client-side program that made that protocol usable on Unix-like systems, Windows, and package-managed desktops.

The modern dnscrypt-proxy repository is written in Go and presents itself as a flexible DNS proxy rather than a single-protocol experiment. Its documentation and repository cover DNSCrypt, DNS-over-HTTPS, relay support, filtering, caching, and service installation, which is why it has remained the default packaged client for users who want encrypted recursive DNS without running a full resolver stack.

Adoption history

dnscrypt-proxy has unusually broad package-manager coverage for a DNS privacy daemon: it appears in Homebrew, Debian and Ubuntu, Fedora/DNF, Arch, Alpine, MacPorts, Nix, Chocolatey, Scoop, Winget, and openSUSE-style packaging. That spread reflects both the cross-platform Go implementation and the recurring sysadmin need for a local encrypted-DNS forwarder.

The project also became part of a wider DNS privacy ecosystem around public resolver lists, DNS stamp configuration, and anonymized DNS relays. Those surrounding lists and conventions matter to adoption because they let packaged clients work from shared resolver metadata rather than hard-coded vendor endpoints.

How it is used

Typical use is to run dnscrypt-proxy as a local service listening on localhost or a LAN address, then point the operating system, dnsmasq, Unbound, or another resolver toward it. The package is popular with users who want encrypted upstream DNS, filtering, cache control, and resolver selection from a single small daemon.

In package-manager culture, dnscrypt-proxy is also the command-line counterpart to GUI DNS privacy settings: it gives power users a text configuration file, service manager integration, and auditable resolver lists.

Why package nerds care

dnscrypt-proxy is significant because it carried DNSCrypt from protocol idea to reinstallable infrastructure component. It is the package people reach for when they want encrypted DNS as a local Unix service rather than as a browser feature.

It also marks the period when DNS privacy packaging stopped being just resolver software and started including local forwarders, public resolver metadata, relay lists, and policy knobs such as filtering and blocklists.

Timeline

• 2011: DNSCrypt public resolver infrastructure and resolver metadata begin the long-running public-list tradition.
• 2017: The current Go-based dnscrypt-proxy release line reaches public 2.x releases.
• 2019: The DNSCrypt project documents anonymized DNSCrypt relays, extending the ecosystem beyond simple client-to-resolver encryption.
• 2020s: dnscrypt-proxy remains packaged across major Unix, Windows, and macOS package managers as a local encrypted-DNS daemon.

Related projects

• Related projects include dnscrypt-wrapper on the server side, DNSCrypt resolver-list repositories, dnsmasq and Unbound as local forwarders that can chain to dnscrypt-proxy, and dnsdist for higher-volume DNS traffic management.

Sources

• https://dnscrypt.info/
• https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy
• https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy/wiki
• https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy/releases
• https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-resolvers
• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/dnscrypt-proxy