flare

A calm, beautiful terminal client for HTTP requests. ember's look — the pixel wordmark, filled input bar, key bar and vi mode line — built around sending requests and reading responses.

• Paste curl, or don't. curl -X GET https://api.dev/users works as-is, and so does GET api.dev/users.
• Readable responses. Status, headers and a re-indented, highlighted body (JSON, HTML, XML, YAML…) on a rail, with a footer for status, time, size and type.
• Aliases per project. /alias get_all_users GET api.dev/users, then just /get_all_users. Each git repository has its own aliases.
• Keys you know. vi or emacs bindings, history with search, completion for commands, aliases, methods and flags.

Install

pipx install flare-http    # the `flare` command everywhere, isolated from your projects
pip install flare-http     # or into the current environment

The package is flare-http on PyPI (flare was taken); the command is flare. Requires Python 3.10+ on macOS or Linux.

Quick tour

> curl -X GET https://someendpoint.com/users/        paste any curl command
> GET api.dev/users                                  or a method and a URL (https assumed)
> POST :8000/login username='arthur' password='1234'  fields after the URL become a JSON body
> PUT :8000/users/1 age:=33 admin:=true              := sends raw JSON (numbers, booleans, lists…)
> GET api.dev/search q=='hello world' X-Token:abc    == adds a query parameter, Name:value a header
> POST :8000/users -d '{"name": "ada"}'              :port means localhost; -d JSON bodies go as JSON
> GET api.dev/me -H 'Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN'   $VARS come from your environment

> /alias get_all_users curl -X GET https://someendpoint.com/users/
> /get_all_users
> /alias get_user GET api.dev/users/{id}             {placeholders} are filled when called
> /get_user 42                                       or /get_user id=42; extra args are appended (-v, -H …)
> /alias create_user POST api.dev/users
> /create_user name=ada age:=36                      so fields can be passed to an alias too
> /save health                                       save the last request as /health
> /aliases                                           list this project's aliases

Supported curl options: -X -H -d --data-raw --data-binary --data-urlencode --json -u -A -e -b -m -L -k -I -G -v --url. Cosmetic ones (-s -S -i -f --compressed…) are accepted and ignored. Multipart forms (-F) aren't supported yet.

Projects

A project is the git repository you're in, or the current directory outside one (--project DIR picks another). Its aliases and input history live in ~/.local/share/flare/projects/<name>-<hash>/, never inside the repo. /project shows where. Aliases are stored exactly as typed, so $TOKEN stays a reference rather than becoming a saved secret.

Command line

flare                              # interactive
flare --vi --theme nebula          # vi keys, another theme (void, nebula, matrix)
flare GET api.dev/users            # send one request and exit (status 1 on errors or 4xx/5xx)
flare /get_all_users | jq .        # piped output is the bare response body

Configuration

~/.config/flare/config.toml:

theme = "void"         # void, nebula, matrix
editing_mode = "vi"    # or emacs
headers = true         # show response headers
timeout = 30           # seconds
max_lines = 300        # longer bodies are cut; /body shows everything

Development

Releases go to PyPI from GitHub; see docs/releasing.md.

python -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -e '.[dev]'
.venv/bin/python -m pytest
docker build -t flare . && docker run --rm flare     # lint + tests in a container