Recipe

Find why one site or API won't connect

When the internet works but one address fails, Kilobat checks each layer in turn. It names the layer that failed and what to do next.

Free in the app and the CLIChecked: 29 October 2026

In the app

Open the dashboard and click the Health tab.
Find Why can’t it connect?.
Paste the exact address that fails into the field, for example github.com or a full URL.
Pick the app, if one app has the problem. Kilobat then checks its own proxy and open connections too.
Click Check. Read the layer that failed and the next step.

With the CLI

Check one host.
```
kilobat why api.example.com
```
Output Each layer with ok, warning, failed or skipped, then a verdict and the next step. The command exits with 1 when a layer failed.
Check the exact URL that one app uses. The output hides query values.
```
kilobat why https://example.com/file.zip --app com.example.App
```
Test through the proxy address that the app sets in its own settings.
```
kilobat why https://huggingface.co --proxy http://127.0.0.1:7890
```
Tell Kilobat when the code runs in a container, a VM or on a remote machine.
```
kilobat why db.internal --context container
```
Record when the app failed beside the time of the check.
```
kilobat why api.example.com --failed-at 14:05
```

Through MCP

Connect the MCP server once with claude mcp add kilobat -- kilobat mcp. For other clients, see the docs. Then an agent can call these tools. Tools that change settings tell the agent to ask you first.

Tool and arguments	What it does
`diagnose_connection` `{"target": "https://api.example.com/v1/models", "app": "process:node"}`	Returns `verdict`, `next` and the `steps`, each with `layer`, `status` and `detail`.

Good to know

The check runs inside Kilobat, not through curl. A strict Kilobat profile cannot block the check itself.
It tests IPv4 and IPv6 separately. A broken IPv6 path gets its own verdict.
A passing check means that this request works from this Mac over that path now. It cannot see a transfer that is already in progress.

Questions

What does --context provider do?

Use it when a hosted service makes the request from its own servers. A private address such as localhost works from your Mac, but those servers cannot reach it.

Sources

Sources checked on 29 October 2026. Man pages are the ones installed with macOS; open one with man <name> in Terminal.