In various embodiments, a network emulation application emulates network conditions when testing a software application. In response to a request to emulate a first set of network conditions for a first client device that is executing the software application, causing a kernel to implement a first pipeline and to automatically input network traffic associated with the first client device to the first pipeline instead of a default bridge. In response to a request to emulate a second set of network conditions for a second client device that is executing the software application, causing the kernel to implement a second pipeline and to automatically input network traffic associated with the second client device to the second pipeline instead of the default bridge. Each of the pipelines perform one or more traffic shaping operations on at least a subset of the network traffic input into the pipeline.