Best Practices

Using Rule Groups

For complex projects, rules can be organized into groups.

Groups help you:

• Separate rules by project or feature
• Enable or disable an entire set of rules at once
• Keep large configurations readable

TIP

Grouping does not affect matching behavior — only organization.

Apply Changes Explicitly

• Rule edits are saved immediately
• Apply Rules commits changes
• Revert Rules restores the last applied snapshot

Disable Instead of Deleting

• Temporarily disable rules for testing
• Useful for comparing behavior or restoring configurations later

Use Well-scoped URL Patterns

The remoteUrl field supports pattern-based matching. Overly broad patterns can unintentionally affect multiple requests.

• Prefer specific paths over generic wildcards
• Avoid * unless intentional
• Be cautious with entire domains or CDN prefixes

For Chrome’s official urlFilter syntax, see: declarativeNetRequest#url_filter_syntax

Pay Attention to Rule Priority

Rules are evaluated in order:

• Higher rules take precedence
• Drag & drop rules to control matching priority
• Proper ordering avoids unexpected overrides

Keep Local Services Stable

• Ensure local servers are running and accessible
• Use fixed ports to avoid mismatches
• Restart local service if responses appear stale