restclient

restclient

A powerful command-line HTTP client inspired by the VS Code REST Client extension. Send HTTP requests directly from .http and .rest files, manage environments, and more.

Features

• Parse and execute requests from .http and .rest files
• Multiple environments with variable support
• System variables (UUID, timestamps, random values, etc.)
• File variables and .env file support
• Request history with search and replay
• Multipart form data and file uploads
• GraphQL support (queries, mutations, subscriptions)
• Basic, Digest, and AWS Signature v4 authentication
• Cookie jar for subsequent requests within a session
• Colored output with syntax highlighting for JSON and XML
• Shell completion for bash, zsh, fish, and PowerShell

Installation

Using Homebrew

brew tap ideaspaper/tap
brew install --cask restclient

Using go install

go install github.com/ideaspaper/restclient@latest

This will install the binary as restclient in your $GOPATH/bin directory. Make sure $GOPATH/bin is in your PATH.

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ideaspaper/restclient.git
cd restclient

# Build the binary
go build -o restclient .

# Move to PATH (optional)
sudo mv restclient /usr/local/bin/

Dependencies

Requires Go 1.24.4 or later.

go mod download

Quick Start

Basic Usage

# Send a request from a .http file
restclient send api.http

# Send with a specific environment
restclient send api.http -e production

Create Your First Request File

Create a file named api.http:

### Get all users
# @name getUsers
GET https://api.example.com/users
Authorization: Bearer {{token}}
Accept: application/json

### Create a new user
# @name createUser
POST https://api.example.com/users
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "name": "John Doe",
    "email": "john@example.com"
}

### Delete a user
DELETE https://api.example.com/users/{{userId}}
Authorization: Bearer {{token}}

Commands

send

Send HTTP requests from .http or .rest files.

restclient send <file.http> [flags]

Flags:

Flag	Short	Description
--name	-n	Select request by name (from @name metadata)
--index	-i	Select request by index (0-based)
--headers		Only show response headers
--body		Only show response body
--output	-o	Save response body to file
--no-history		Don't save request to history
--dry-run		Preview request without sending

Examples:

# Send first request in file
restclient send api.http

# Send request by name
restclient send api.http --name getUsers

# Send request by index
restclient send api.http --index 2

# Save response to file
restclient send api.http --output response.json

# Only show response body
restclient send api.http --body

# Preview request without sending (dry run)
restclient send api.http --dry-run

env

Manage environments and variables.

restclient env <subcommand> [args]

Subcommands:

Command	Description
list	List all environments
current	Show current environment
use <env>	Switch to an environment
show [env]	Show variables in an environment
set <env> <var> <value>	Set a variable
unset <env> <var>	Remove a variable
create <env>	Create a new environment
delete <env>	Delete an environment

Examples:

# Create environments
restclient env create development
restclient env create production

# Set variables
restclient env set development API_URL https://dev.api.example.com
restclient env set production API_URL https://api.example.com
restclient env set '$shared' API_KEY my-api-key  # Shared across all environments

# Switch environment
restclient env use production

# View variables
restclient env show production

history

View and manage request history.

restclient history <subcommand> [args]

Subcommands:

Command	Description
list	List recent requests
show <index>	Show details of a specific request
search <query>	Search request history
replay <index>	Replay a request from history
stats	Show history statistics
clear	Clear all history

Flags for list:

Flag	Short	Description
--limit	-l	Number of items to show (default: 10)
--all	-a	Show all history items

Examples:

# List last 10 requests
restclient history list

# List last 5 requests
restclient history list --limit 5

# List all requests
restclient history list --all

# Search history
restclient history search "api.example.com"

# Replay a request
restclient history replay 0

# View statistics
restclient history stats

completion

Generate shell completion scripts.

restclient completion [bash|zsh|fish|powershell]

Setup:

# Bash
source <(restclient completion bash)

# Zsh
restclient completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_restclient"

# Fish
restclient completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/restclient.fish

# PowerShell
restclient completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

HTTP File Format

Basic Request

GET https://api.example.com/users

With Headers

GET https://api.example.com/users
Authorization: Bearer my-token
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json

With Body

POST https://api.example.com/users
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "name": "John Doe",
    "email": "john@example.com"
}

Multiple Requests

Separate requests with ###:

### Get users
GET https://api.example.com/users

###

### Create user
POST https://api.example.com/users
Content-Type: application/json

{"name": "John"}

###

### Delete user
DELETE https://api.example.com/users/123

Request Metadata

Use comments with @ prefix for metadata:

# @name myRequest
# @note This is a test request
# @no-redirect
# @no-cookie-jar
GET https://api.example.com/users

Metadata	Description
@name	Name the request for reference
@note	Add a description
@no-redirect	Don't follow redirects
@no-cookie-jar	Don't use cookie jar
@prompt	Define prompt variables

Query Parameters

Multi-line query parameters:

GET https://api.example.com/users
    ?page=1
    &limit=10
    &sort=name
    &order=asc

Form URL Encoded

POST https://api.example.com/login
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

username=john
&password=secret123
&remember=true

Multipart Form Data

POST https://api.example.com/upload
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----FormBoundary

------FormBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="title"

My Document
------FormBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="document.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf

< ./document.pdf
------FormBoundary--

File References

Include file contents in request body:

POST https://api.example.com/upload
Content-Type: application/json

< ./data.json

GraphQL

POST https://api.example.com/graphql
Content-Type: application/json
X-Request-Type: GraphQL

query GetUser($id: ID!) {
    user(id: $id) {
        name
        email
    }
}

{"id": "123"}

GraphQL is auto-detected for URLs ending in /graphql:

POST https://api.example.com/graphql
Content-Type: application/json

mutation CreateUser($input: CreateUserInput!) {
    createUser(input: $input) {
        id
        name
    }
}

{"input": {"name": "John", "email": "john@example.com"}}

Variables

File Variables

Define variables at the top of your .http file:

@baseUrl = https://api.example.com
@token = my-secret-token

###

GET {{baseUrl}}/users
Authorization: Bearer {{token}}

Environment Variables

Variables defined in environments via restclient env set:

GET {{API_URL}}/users
Authorization: Bearer {{API_KEY}}

System Variables

Variable	Description	Example
{{$guid}}	UUID v4	550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
{{$timestamp}}	Unix timestamp	1234567890
{{$timestamp offset unit}}	Timestamp with offset	{{$timestamp -1 d}}
{{$datetime format}}	Formatted datetime	{{$datetime iso8601}}
{{$datetime format offset unit}}	Datetime with offset	{{$datetime rfc1123 1 h}}
{{$localDatetime format}}	Local datetime	{{$localDatetime YYYY-MM-DD}}
{{$randomInt min max}}	Random integer	{{$randomInt 1 100}}
{{$processEnv VAR}}	OS environment variable	{{$processEnv HOME}}
{{$dotenv VAR}}	Variable from .env file	{{$dotenv DATABASE_URL}}
{{$prompt name}}	Prompt for input	{{$prompt username}}
{{$prompt name description}}	Prompt with description	{{$prompt apiKey Enter your API key}}

Datetime Formats:

• iso8601 - ISO 8601 format (RFC3339)
• rfc1123 - RFC 1123 format
• Custom: YYYY-MM-DD, HH:mm:ss, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ, etc.

Offset Units:

• y - years
• M - months
• w - weeks
• d - days
• h - hours
• m - minutes
• s - seconds
• ms - milliseconds

Examples:

@requestId = {{$guid}}

POST https://api.example.com/orders
Content-Type: application/json
X-Request-Id: {{requestId}}

{
    "id": "{{$guid}}",
    "timestamp": {{$timestamp}},
    "expiresAt": "{{$datetime iso8601 1 h}}",
    "randomCode": {{$randomInt 1000 9999}},
    "createdBy": "{{$processEnv USER}}"
}

Request Variables

Reference values from previous named requests:

# @name login
POST https://api.example.com/auth/login
Content-Type: application/json

{"username": "john", "password": "secret"}

###

# @name getProfile
GET https://api.example.com/users/me
Authorization: Bearer {{login.response.body.$.token}}

Syntax:

• {{requestName.response.body.$.jsonPath}} - Extract from JSON response
• {{requestName.response.headers.Header-Name}} - Extract response header

URL Encoding

Prefix with % to URL-encode a variable:

GET https://api.example.com/search?q={{%searchTerm}}

Authentication

Basic Authentication

GET https://api.example.com/protected
Authorization: Basic username:password

Or pre-encoded:

GET https://api.example.com/protected
Authorization: Basic dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

Digest Authentication

GET https://api.example.com/protected
Authorization: Digest username password

AWS Signature v4

GET https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/my-bucket
Authorization: AWS accessKeyId secretAccessKey

With optional parameters:

GET https://api.example.com/resource
Authorization: AWS accessKeyId secretAccessKey token:sessionToken region:us-west-2 service:execute-api

Configuration

Configuration is stored in ~/.restclient/config.json:

{
  "followRedirect": true,
  "timeoutInMilliseconds": 0,
  "rememberCookiesForSubsequentRequests": true,
  "defaultHeaders": {
    "User-Agent": "restclient-cli"
  },
  "environmentVariables": {
    "$shared": {
      "API_KEY": "shared-key"
    },
    "development": {
      "API_URL": "https://dev.api.example.com"
    },
    "production": {
      "API_URL": "https://api.example.com"
    }
  },
  "currentEnvironment": "development",
  "insecureSSL": false,
  "proxy": "",
  "excludeHostsForProxy": [],
  "certificates": {},
  "previewOption": "full",
  "showColors": true
}

Configuration Options

Option	Description	Default
followRedirect	Follow HTTP redirects	true
timeoutInMilliseconds	Request timeout (0 = no timeout)	0
rememberCookiesForSubsequentRequests	Persist cookies between requests	true
defaultHeaders	Headers added to all requests	{"User-Agent": "restclient-cli"}
insecureSSL	Skip SSL certificate verification	false
proxy	HTTP proxy URL	""
excludeHostsForProxy	Hosts to bypass proxy	[]
showColors	Colorized output	true

Global Flags

Flag	Short	Description
--config	-c	Config file path
--env	-e	Environment to use
--verbose	-v	Verbose output
--no-color		Disable colored output
--version		Show version
--help	-h	Show help

Examples

Complete Workflow

# Create environments
restclient env create dev
restclient env create prod

# Set environment variables
restclient env set dev baseUrl https://dev.api.example.com
restclient env set prod baseUrl https://api.example.com
restclient env set '$shared' apiKey my-secret-key

# Use development environment
restclient env use dev

# Create request file
cat > api.http << 'EOF'
@userId = 123

### Get user
# @name getUser
GET {{baseUrl}}/users/{{userId}}
X-API-Key: {{apiKey}}

### Update user
# @name updateUser
PUT {{baseUrl}}/users/{{userId}}
Content-Type: application/json
X-API-Key: {{apiKey}}

{
    "name": "Updated Name",
    "updatedAt": "{{$datetime iso8601}}"
}
EOF

# Send request
restclient send api.http --name getUser

# Switch to production
restclient env use prod
restclient send api.http --name getUser

# View history
restclient history list

# Replay last request
restclient history replay 0

CI/CD Usage

#!/bin/bash
# Run API tests in CI/CD

# Set environment
export API_KEY="${CI_API_KEY}"

# Create request file
cat > test.http << 'EOF'
GET https://api.example.com/health
Authorization: Bearer {{$processEnv API_KEY}}
EOF

# Run with no color for CI logs
restclient send test.http --no-color --body

# Check response
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "API health check passed"
else
    echo "API health check failed"
    exit 1
fi

Troubleshooting

Request Not Found

Error: request with name 'myRequest' not found

Make sure the request has the @name metadata:

# @name myRequest
GET https://api.example.com

Variable Not Resolved

{{variableName}} appears in output

1. Check if the variable is defined in file variables or environment
2. Verify the current environment with restclient env current
3. Check variable spelling (case-sensitive)

SSL Certificate Errors

For self-signed certificates, you can either:

1. Set insecureSSL in config:

# Edit ~/.restclient/config.json
# Set "insecureSSL": true

1. Configure certificates:

{
  "certificates": {
    "api.example.com": {
      "cert": "/path/to/cert.pem",
      "key": "/path/to/key.pem"
    }
  }
}

Proxy Issues

Configure proxy in ~/.restclient/config.json:

{
  "proxy": "http://proxy.example.com:8080",
  "excludeHostsForProxy": ["localhost", "127.0.0.1"]
}

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by VS Code REST Client
• Built with Cobra and Viper