Resterm

a terminal-based REST/GraphQL/gRPC client.

[!WARNING] Resterm is still in early stages so bugs and undesired behaviors can be expected.

Overview

Resterm is a terminal-first client for working HTTP, GraphQL, and gRPC services. It pairs a Vim-like-style editor with a workspace explorer, response diff, history and scripting so you can iterate on requests without leaving the keyboard.

Highlights

• Editor with inline syntax highlighting, search (Ctrl+F), and clipboard motions.
• Workspace navigator that filters .http / .rest files, supports recursion and keeps request lists in sync as you edit.
• Inline requests and curl import for one-off calls (Ctrl+Enter on a URL or curl block).
• Pretty/Raw/Header/Diff/History views with optional split panes and pinned comparisons.
• Variable scopes, captures, JavaScript hooks, and multi-step workflows with per-step expectations and overrides.
• GraphQL helpers (@graphql, @variables, @query) and gRPC directives (@grpc, @grpc-descriptor, reflection, metadata).
• Built-in OAuth 2.0 client plus support for basic, bearer, API key, and custom header auth.
• Latency with @profile to benchmark endpoints and render histograms right inside the TUI.
• Multi-step workflows let you compose several named requests into one workflow (@workflow + @step), override per-step variables, and review aggregated results in History.

Documentation

The full reference, including request syntax, metadata, directive tables, scripting APIs, transport settings and advanced workflows, lives in docs/resterm.md.

Installation

[!NOTE] The install helper uses curl and jq. Install jq with your package manager (brew install jq, sudo apt install jq, etc.).

Linux / macOS

# Detect latest tag
LATEST_TAG=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/unkn0wn-root/resterm/releases/latest | jq -r .tag_name)

# Download the matching binary (Darwin/Linux + amd64/arm64)
curl -fL -o resterm "https://github.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm/releases/download/${LATEST_TAG}/resterm_$(uname -s)_$(uname -m)"

# Make it executable and move it onto your PATH
chmod +x resterm
sudo install -m 0755 resterm /usr/local/bin/resterm

Windows (PowerShell)

$latest = Invoke-RestMethod https://api.github.com/repos/unkn0wn-root/resterm/releases/latest
$asset  = $latest.assets | Where-Object { $_.name -like 'resterm_Windows_*' } | Select-Object -First 1
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $asset.browser_download_url -OutFile resterm.exe
# Optionally relocate to a directory on PATH, e.g.:
Move-Item resterm.exe "$env:USERPROFILE\bin\resterm.exe"

From source

go install github.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm/cmd/resterm@latest

Quick Start

1. Create or open a directory that contains .http / .rest files (see _examples/ for samples).
2. Launch Resterm: resterm --workspace path/to/project (or if your .http/.rest file is in the same dir. - just type resterm and it will be autodiscovered).
3. Pick a request from the sidebar and press Ctrl+Enter to send it. Responses appear in the right pane.
4. Use Ctrl+E to switch environments, Ctrl+G to inspect captured globals, and Ctrl+V / Ctrl+U to split the response pane when comparing calls.
5. Move between panes with Tab / Shift+Tab, jump directly with g+r (requests), g+i (editor), g+p (response), and adjust the editor/response width with g+h / g+l.

A minimal request file:

### Status check
# @name status
GET https://httpbin.org/status/204
User-Agent: resterm

### Authenticated echo
# @name bearerEcho
# @auth bearer {{auth.token}}
GET https://httpbin.org/bearer
Accept: application/json

Workflows

• Combine existing requests with @workflow + @step blocks to build repeatable scenarios that run inside the TUI.
• Set per-step assertions (expect.status, expect.statuscode) and pass data between steps via vars.request.* and vars.workflow.* namespaces.
• View progress in the sidebar, and inspect the aggregated summary in History after the run.
• See docs/resterm.md for the full reference and _examples/workflows.http for a runnable sample workflow.

Quick Configuration Overview

• Environment files: resterm.env.json (or legacy rest-client.env.json) discovered in the file directory, workspace root, or current working directory.
• CLI flags: --workspace, --file, --env, --env-file, --timeout, --insecure, --follow, --proxy, --recursive.
• Config directory: $HOME/Library/Application Support/resterm, %APPDATA%\resterm, or $HOME/.config/resterm (override with RESTERM_CONFIG_DIR).

See the documentation docs/resterm.md for a complete breakdown of variable resolution, scripting helpers, history storage, and transport overrides.

Roadmap

• Command palette & keymap customisation
• Richer response tooling (streaming previews, save-to-file, diffing)
• Better scripting support (shared helpers, setup/teardown, better assertions)
• Themes & layout configuration
• Support more curl flags