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, and JavaScript hooks for pre-request mutation and post-response testing.
• 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.

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

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