HTTP requests

Open a .http or .rest file, put the caret in a request and press ⌘↩ (Run › Send Request). The response opens in its own tab.

The format is the one JetBrains’ HTTP client and the VS Code REST Client read, so a request file works in three editors, and Postman or Insomnia exports convert to it.

A request file

@host = https://api.example.com

### List users
GET {{host}}/users
Authorization: Bearer {{token}}

### Create one
# @name create
POST {{host}}/users
Content-Type: application/json

{"name": "Ada"}

The format

Blocks are separated by lines starting with ###. Text after the ### names the request.
Inside a block: comment lines (# or //), then the request line, then headers until a blank line, then the body.
The body can come from a file instead: < ./file.json.
# @name create names a request explicitly.

Variables and environments

@name = value lines outside a request define variables, used as {{name}}. Everything else comes from environment files beside the request file or in a parent folder:

Directoryapi/
- http-client.env.json shared values, safe to commit
- http-client.private.env.json secrets, keep out of Git
- users.http

Both files are keyed by environment name:

{
  "dev": { "host": "http://localhost:8080" },
  "prod": { "host": "https://api.example.com" }
}

# @env prod in the request file picks the environment; otherwise the first one in the file is used. A variable that is defined nowhere is reported by name, with where to define it.

How requests are sent