Kampala, a YC W26 company, launched on April 16, 2026, with a man-in-the-middle proxy that converts browser, mobile, and desktop app workflows into stable APIs for AI agents. Announced via Launch HN by founders Alex and Tarun, the project received 69 points and 62 comments. The founders bring 7-8 years of web reverse-engineering experience from building integrations for sneaker/ticket releases and sportsbook logins.
The company addresses a critical problem: "Many people spend hours per day in legacy dashboards and on-prem solutions reconciling data across platforms. Current attempts at automation use browser automations or computer use agents which are brittle, slow, and nondeterministic."
Proxy Preserves TLS and HTTP2 Fingerprints to Bypass Anti-Bot Detection
Kampala's MITM-style proxy intercepts HTTP/HTTPS traffic from websites, mobile apps, and desktop apps while preserving TLS and HTTP2 fingerprints over the wire—critical for bypassing strict anti-bot detection. The system automatically maps tokens, cookies, sessions, and multi-step sequences, allowing users to capture workflows and replay them as stable automations.
Existing MITM tools fail for three reasons: they manipulate TLS and HTTP2 fingerprints (triggering anti-bot detection), they provide inadequate MCP features for scripts and replay, and they don't support building workflows from request sequences. Kampala addresses all three limitations by leveraging existing session tokens and anti-bot cookies from real user sessions.
Two Usage Modes Enable Both Guided and Manual Workflow Capture
Kampala operates in two modes. The agent harness directly creates scripts and APIs by prompting users to perform workflow actions. The MCP integration allows users to manually perform a workflow once, after which coding agents use Kampala's MCP to replicate it.
Compared to browser automation, Kampala offers deterministic operation at the request layer rather than the visual/DOM layer, executes in seconds instead of minutes, maintains stability without brittle selectors, and preserves anti-bot compatibility through real browser fingerprints. Once created, APIs and scripts can be exported, run locally, or hosted by Kampala.
Real-World Use Case Saves Hours in Legacy System Data Entry
The founders' origin story reveals practical applications. They initially built Zatanna, a dental tech company creating voice agents and front desk assistants. Their competitive advantage was integrating with nearly any system, including insurance payer dashboards and legacy dental practice solutions. After building extensive tooling including Kampala to accelerate integrations, they realized "this wasn't really about dentistry."
One founder shared: "I sent it to my property manager mom, who (with a lot of help from me), automated 2-3 hours of billing information entry in Yardi." The tool currently supports macOS with Windows support coming soon.
Key Takeaways
- Kampala uses MITM proxy technology to convert browser, mobile, and desktop app workflows into deterministic APIs while preserving TLS fingerprints
- The founders bring 7-8 years of reverse-engineering experience from building integrations for high-security systems like sneaker releases and sportsbooks
- Unlike browser automation, Kampala operates at the request layer, executing in seconds rather than minutes with stable, anti-bot-compatible automations
- Real-world deployment automated 2-3 hours of daily billing entry in legacy property management software
- Currently available on macOS with Windows support in development