Managing several subscriptions — the right way to use proxy-providers

Having two or three subscriptions is normal: a main one, a backup, and possibly something self-hosted.

Switching between config files in the client is tedious, and every switch drops all your connections. The better approach is merging them into one configuration with proxy-providers.

What proxy-providers is

It separates "where the nodes come from" out of the main config: the main config only describes policy groups and rules, while nodes are supplied dynamically by providers.

A provider updates itself on a schedule, so the main config never has to change

Basic syntax

proxy-providers:
  main:
    type: http
    url: "https://main-subscription-url"
    interval: 3600
    path: ./providers/main.yaml
    health-check:
      enable: true
      url: http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204
      interval: 300
      lazy: true

  backup:
    type: http
    url: "https://backup-subscription-url"
    interval: 3600
    path: ./providers/backup.yaml
    health-check:
      enable: true
      url: http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204
      interval: 600
      lazy: true

proxy-groups:
  - name: "🚀 Select"
    type: select
    use: [main, backup]          # every node from both providers
    proxies: ["♻️ Auto", DIRECT] # other entries can be mixed in

  - name: "♻️ Auto"
    type: url-test
    use: [main]
    url: http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204
    interval: 300
    tolerance: 50

The fields

Field	Meaning
`type`	`http` (remote subscription) / `file` (local file) / `inline`
`url`	The subscription address
`interval`	Update interval in seconds; 3600 = one hour
`path`	Local cache path
`header`	Custom request headers, for setting a User-Agent
`filter`	Keep only matching nodes
`exclude-filter`	Drop matching nodes
`exclude-type`	Drop certain protocol types
`health-check`	Health-check configuration
`override`	Bulk-modify node attributes (Mihomo)

Cleaning the node list with filter

Subscriptions frequently include pseudo-nodes like "Remaining: xx GB" or "Expires in: xx days", plus regions you have no use for.

proxy-providers:
  main:
    type: http
    url: "..."
    interval: 3600
    path: ./providers/main.yaml
    # keep only these regions
    filter: "(?i)HK|Hong ?Kong|JP|Japan|SG|Singapore|US"
    # drop these
    exclude-filter: "(?i)remaining|expire|traffic|website|reset|subscription|test"
    exclude-type: "ss|ssr"       # drop certain protocols
    health-check:
      enable: true
      url: http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204
      interval: 300

User-Agent: when you cannot get the Clash format

Some providers return a different subscription format depending on the UA:

proxy-providers:
  main:
    type: http
    url: "..."
    header:
      User-Agent: ["clash.meta"]

Common values: clash.meta, mihomo, clash-verge/v2.5.2, ClashforWindows/0.19.23.

If a provider never produces any nodes, the UA is the first thing to suspect.

health-check: why it is mandatory

Without health checks the nodes inside a provider have no latency data, so a url-test group has nothing to choose from.

health-check:
  enable: true
  url: http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204
  interval: 300
  lazy: true
  expected-status: 204     # the status code expected

lazy: true skips checks when no traffic is passing, saving resources.

override: bulk-editing node attributes

A Mihomo feature for adjusting every node in a provider at once:

proxy-providers:
  main:
    type: http
    url: "..."
    override:
      udp: true                    # force UDP on
      skip-cert-verify: false      # force certificate verification
      additional-prefix: "[Main] " # prefix every node name
      # additional-suffix: " ⚡"

additional-prefix is genuinely useful with several subscriptions — one glance at the node list tells you where each node came from.

A complete multi-subscription configuration

proxy-providers:
  subA:
    type: http
    url: "https://a.example.com/sub"
    interval: 3600
    path: ./providers/a.yaml
    exclude-filter: "(?i)remaining|expire|website"
    override:
      additional-prefix: "[A] "
    health-check: { enable: true, url: http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204, interval: 300, lazy: true }

  subB:
    type: http
    url: "https://b.example.com/sub"
    interval: 3600
    path: ./providers/b.yaml
    exclude-filter: "(?i)remaining|expire|website"
    override:
      additional-prefix: "[B] "
    health-check: { enable: true, url: http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204, interval: 600, lazy: true }

proxy-groups:
  # master switch
  - name: "🚀 Select"
    type: select
    proxies: ["♻️ Best overall", "🅰️ Subscription A", "🅱️ Subscription B", "🇭🇰 Hong Kong", DIRECT]

  # fastest across both subscriptions
  - name: "♻️ Best overall"
    type: url-test
    use: [subA, subB]
    interval: 300
    tolerance: 50
    lazy: true

  # grouped per subscription, for comparison and diagnosis
  - name: "🅰️ Subscription A"
    type: url-test
    use: [subA]
    interval: 300
    tolerance: 50
  - name: "🅱️ Subscription B"
    type: url-test
    use: [subB]
    interval: 300
    tolerance: 50

  # grouped by region across subscriptions
  - name: "🇭🇰 Hong Kong"
    type: url-test
    use: [subA, subB]
    filter: "(?i)HK|Hong ?Kong"
    interval: 300
    tolerance: 50

  # primary/backup: fall to B when A dies
  - name: "🛡 Primary/backup"
    type: fallback
    proxies: ["🅰️ Subscription A", "🅱️ Subscription B"]
    interval: 300

Local files and inline definitions

Local file (nodes you maintain yourself):

proxy-providers:
  selfhosted:
    type: file
    path: ./providers/self.yaml
    health-check: { enable: true, url: http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204, interval: 300 }

The file format:

proxies:
  - name: "My VPS"
    type: trojan
    server: my.example.com
    port: 443
    password: "pwd"

Inline (written straight into the main config):

proxy-providers:
  selfhosted:
    type: inline
    payload:
      - name: "My VPS"
        type: trojan
        server: my.example.com
        port: 443
        password: "pwd"

Diagnosing a provider that will not load

When updates will not come through

If the subscription address itself is unreachable from your current network, tell the provider to download through a proxy. Some versions support it directly:

proxy-providers:
  main:
    type: http
    url: "..."
    proxy: DIRECT      # or the name of a policy group

Where that is unsupported, enable "update subscriptions through the proxy" in the client.

How this differs from keeping multiple profiles

Clash Verge lets you save several profile cards and switch with a click. That is a different idea from proxy-providers:

	Multiple profiles	proxy-providers
Switching	Click a card manually	No switching needed
Cost of switching	Core reload, connections drop	None
Merging nodes	Not possible	Groups can span subscriptions
Maintenance	Each profile independent	One main config
Suits	Genuinely different scenarios (work and home with entirely different rules)	Only the source of nodes differs

If only the subscription source differs and the rules are the same, use providers; if the rules differ too, use separate profiles.

In short

For several subscriptions, merge with proxy-providers rather than swapping config files
exclude-filter clears out "remaining traffic" pseudo-nodes
health-check is mandatory, or url-test has no data to work with
Give backup subscriptions a longer interval to cut pointless connections
additional-prefix marks the source, which saves time when diagnosing
When loading fails, first look at what is in the cache file

Related docs

Config Basics The YAML structure of a Clash config — what each of the eight top-level fields does

A Clash / Mihomo config taken apart from top to bottom — ports, mode, DNS, proxies, proxy-groups, rules and rule-providers — with a minimal working config you can paste straight in.

2026-08-021280 words3 min read

Config Basics The five proxy-group types — select, url-test, fallback, load-balance and relay

What each policy group actually does, when to use it, the parameters that matter, plus a grouping structure you can copy wholesale and Mihomo's include-all and filter options.

2026-07-291335 words3 min read

Config Basics Extending a subscription with Merge, so your edits survive updates

Editing the downloaded config gets undone at the next update. How Clash Verge's extended config works: prepend/append/override syntax, merge order, and a set of useful snippets.

2026-07-091192 words3 min read