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⚡ gRPC Inspector

Flocon allows you to inspect gRPC calls and Protocol Buffers messages in real time, supporting Android applications built with grpc-java / grpc-android.

Prerequisites

gRPC Version

Ensure your grpc-android / grpc-java version is at least 1.70.0.

The gRPC calls are reported to the network plugin: add flocon-network-core and install it (the bad network simulation also applies to gRPC calls):

startFlocon(FloconContext(context)) {
    install(FloconNetwork)
}

Choosing the Right Artifact

Android projects frequently use either standard Protobuf (protobuf-java / protobuf-kotlin) or the lightweight mobile variant (protobuf-javalite / protobuf-kotlin-lite). Flocon provides dedicated artifacts for each to ensure clean JSON serialization:

dependencies {
    implementation("com.google.protobuf:protobuf-kotlin-lite:$PROTOBUF_VERSION")

    debugImplementation("io.github.openflocon:flocon-grpc-interceptor-lite:LAST_VERSION")
    releaseImplementation("io.github.openflocon:flocon-grpc-interceptor-lite-no-op:LAST_VERSION")
}

dependencies {
    implementation("com.google.protobuf:protobuf-kotlin:$PROTOBUF_VERSION")

    debugImplementation("io.github.openflocon:flocon-grpc-interceptor:LAST_VERSION")
    releaseImplementation("io.github.openflocon:flocon-grpc-interceptor-no-op:LAST_VERSION")
}

Release builds

The gRPC interceptors are Android only. The -no-op artifacts expose the same API (FloconGrpcInterceptor, FloconGrpcFormatter) and forward every call untouched, so the same code compiles in debug and release.

Interceptor Configuration

Attach FloconGrpcInterceptor to your ManagedChannelBuilder (io.github.openflocon.flocon.grpc.lite.FloconGrpcInterceptor for the lite artifact):

val channel = ManagedChannelBuilder.forAddress(host, port)
    .intercept(FloconGrpcInterceptor())
    .build()