Rouint

A CLI-based API endpoint management and testing tool. Define endpoints once, organize them locally, and test them against any environment directly from the terminal — no GUI required.

Rouint stores endpoint configurations (method, path, headers, auth, body, files) in a local .rouint-data/ directory and executes requests using the system's native HTTP tools — curl on Linux/macOS and PowerShell on Windows — giving you the transparency of a raw command with the organization of a professional API client.

Features

• Define reusable API endpoint templates with {placeholder} parameters
• Interactive endpoint creation wizard with step-back navigation (Esc to go back)
• Support for GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, and OPTIONS methods
• Custom headers with method-aware defaults
• Authentication — Bearer Token (with temp token reuse) and Custom header auth
• JSON request body with inline validation
• File attachment support — multipart/form-data uploads
• Multi-environment support — add local, staging, and production URLs; choose at test time
• Automatic URL encoding of placeholder values
• Pretty-printed JSON in both REQUEST and RESPONSE boxes
• Full-width terminal panels that adapt to your terminal size
• Input validation — base URLs, JSON bodies, and file paths checked on entry
• Local-first storage — all data stays in your project directory
• .gitignore auto-generated to keep environments and tokens out of version control
• Cross-platform — native backends for Linux/macOS (cURL) and Windows (PowerShell)

Requirements

All platforms

• Python 3.9 or higher

Linux / macOS

• curl installed and available on your PATH (pre-installed on most systems)

Windows

• PowerShell 5.1 (Windows PowerShell, included with Windows 10/11) or PowerShell 7+ (pwsh)
• No additional software required — PowerShell is included with Windows

Platform Backends

Rouint automatically selects the appropriate HTTP backend based on your operating system:

The backend is selected transparently — all CLI commands and endpoint configurations work identically across platforms.

Supported PowerShell versions

• PowerShell 7+ (pwsh) — preferred, supports native -Form parameter for file uploads
• Windows PowerShell 5.1 (powershell.exe) — supported with .NET-based multipart upload fallback

Rouint prefers pwsh (PowerShell 7+) if available, and falls back to powershell.exe (Windows PowerShell 5.1). If neither is found, a clear error message is displayed.

Platform limitations

• On Windows, file uploads on PowerShell 5.1 use a .NET HttpClient-based approach which may behave slightly differently from PowerShell 7+'s native -Form parameter.
• Request timing on Windows uses a .NET Stopwatch which provides millisecond-level accuracy.

Installation

From PyPI

Linux / macOS:

pip install rouint

Windows:

py -m pip install rouint

From source (for development)

git clone https://github.com/KavimugilRajasekar/Rouint.git
cd Rouint
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Quick Start

1. Initialize your workspace

rouint init

Creates .rouint-data/ in your current directory:

.rouint-data/
├── .gitignore           # Keeps environments, tokens, and bodies out of git
├── config.json          # Workspace configuration
├── registry.json        # Endpoint registry (maps IDs to slugs)
├── endpoints/           # Endpoint configuration files
├── environments/        # Base URLs (gitignored)
└── bodies/              # Request body files (gitignored)

2. Add your base URLs

rouint add-base-url

Choose Add a new base URL, enter the URL and a label:

local      → http://127.0.0.1:8080
staging    → https://staging.myapp.com
production → https://api.myapp.com

To remove a URL, choose Delete an environment.

3. Create an endpoint

rouint add-new-api

A 7-step wizard — press Esc at any step to go back to the previous one:

The endpoint is saved without a base URL — you choose the environment at test time.

4. Test an endpoint

rouint start-test

Flow: Select endpoint → Select base URL → Fill placeholders → Execute

Displays three panels:

• REQUEST — method, path, headers, body (pretty-printed JSON)
• RESPONSE — status, headers, body (pretty-printed JSON)
• METRICS — HTTP status, response time, response size

Use --no-metrics to hide the metrics panel:

rouint start-test --no-metrics

If a token is detected in the response (Bearer/JWT), Rouint offers to save it as a temp token and automatically reuses it on subsequent Bearer-auth requests.

5. Manage your collection

rouint list-api

Select any endpoint to:

• Edit — re-run the wizard with existing values pre-filled; Esc steps back
• View Configuration — print the raw JSON
• Delete — remove permanently after confirmation

Placeholder System

Use {name} syntax anywhere in the path or query string:

Rules:

• Names must match [a-zA-Z0-9_]
• Names must be unique within an endpoint
• Braces must be balanced
• Values are URL-encoded automatically at test time

File Attachments

For POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE endpoints, you can attach files during creation:

File path: /home/user/photo.jpg
Form field name: avatar

At test time, Rouint sends the request as multipart/form-data:

• Linux/macOS: via curl -F (curl sets the correct boundary automatically)
• Windows: via PowerShell's -Form parameter (PS 7+) or .NET MultipartFormDataContent (PS 5.1)

Authentication

Temp token workflow:

1. Login endpoint returns a token → Rouint detects it
2. "Save as temp token?" → saved to .rouint-data/.temp_token
3. Next Bearer-auth request → "Use saved temp token?" → auto-filled
4. rouint clear-token → removes it

Git Safety

rouint init creates .rouint-data/.gitignore that protects:

environments/    # real base URLs
.temp_token      # live Bearer tokens
bodies/          # may contain credentials
*.secret.json    # explicitly sensitive files

Safe to commit: endpoints/, registry.json, config.json

Commands Reference

Workflow at a Glance

rouint init          # set up workspace (once per project)
rouint add-base-url  # register: local → http://127.0.0.1:8080
rouint add-new-api   # define: POST /api/v1/auth/login
rouint start-test    # pick endpoint → pick URL → test!
rouint list-api      # manage saved endpoints

Project Structure

Rouint/
├── pyproject.toml
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── rouint/
│   ├── __init__.py             # Package init, exposes __version__
│   ├── cli.py                  # Click CLI commands and interactive flows
│   ├── core/
│   │   ├── executor.py         # Shared execution interface & platform dispatch
│   │   ├── manager.py          # Endpoint CRUD (save, list, delete)
│   │   └── parser.py           # Placeholder extraction, resolution, validation
│   ├── platforms/
│   │   ├── __init__.py         # Platform detection
│   │   ├── linux/
│   │   │   └── executor.py     # cURL-based HTTP backend
│   │   └── windows/
│   │       └── executor.py     # PowerShell-based HTTP backend
│   ├── utils/
│   │   └── config.py           # Workspace init, data paths, .gitignore generation
│   └── ui/
│       └── components.py       # Banner, header, box_width
└── tests/
    ├── test_executor.py        # Shared + platform executor tests
    ├── test_parser.py          # Placeholder/path tests
    ├── test_manager.py         # Endpoint CRUD tests
    ├── test_platform.py        # Platform detection tests
    └── test_windows.py         # Windows-specific backend tests

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the full version history.

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/KavimugilRajasekar/Rouint.git
cd Rouint
python -m venv .venv

# Linux / macOS
source .venv/bin/activate

# Windows
.venv\Scripts\activate

pip install -e ".[dev]"

Running tests

# All platforms
pytest tests/ -v

# Build and validate package
python -m build
python -m twine check dist/*

Supported Python Versions

• Python 3.9
• Python 3.10
• Python 3.11
• Python 3.12
• Python 3.13

License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

Author

Kavimugil Rajasekar (kavimugil28@gmail.com)