curl-code

A full-featured HTTP client for VS Code with a clean UI and cURL backend.

This extension is not affiliated with or endorsed by the cURL project or Daniel Stenberg.

Features

• Full REST Client: Support for GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, and OPTIONS
• Collections: Organize requests into collections
• Environments: Global and collection-scoped variables with {{variable}} interpolation
• Secret Management: Sensitive values stored securely via VS Code's encrypted storage
• History: Track all your requests automatically
• .http File Support: Supports .http/.rest files with syntax highlighting
• .env File Support: Import .env files as environments with automatic reload on change
• Authentication: Basic Auth, Bearer Token, API Key, Digest, NTLM, Negotiate, AWS Sigv4, and OAuth2
• Advanced cURL Flags: 35+ options — Cookies, HTTP version, proxy, SSL/TLS, retries, and more
• Response Viewer: Body, Headers, cURL command, and verbose Log tabs with syntax highlighting
• Resizable Layout: Drag to resize request/response panels with horizontal or vertical orientation
• Copy as cURL: Export any request as a cURL command

Settings

• curl-code.curlPath: Path to cURL executable (default: curl)
• curl-code.timeout: Request timeout in milliseconds (default: 30000)
• curl-code.followRedirects: Follow HTTP redirects (default: true)
• curl-code.verifySSL: Verify SSL certificates (default: true)
• curl-code.saveRequestHistory: Save request history (default: true)
• curl-code.maxHistoryItems: Maximum history items (default: 50)

Requirements

• cURL must be installed on your system
• Most systems have cURL pre-installed
• Download from: https://curl.se/download.html

Quick Start

1. Click the curl-code icon in the Activity Bar
2. Click "New Request"
3. Enter a URL and click "Send" or press Enter

Resizable Layout

The request and response panels are separated by a draggable handle. Drag it to adjust how much space each panel gets (clamped between 20–80%).

Orientation Toggle

Click the orientation button in the top bar to switch between:

• Horizontal (stacked): Request on top, response below
• Vertical (side-by-side): Request on left, response on right

Response Viewer

Responses are displayed in a tabbed viewer with metadata at the top showing the HTTP status code (color-coded), response time, and body size.

Tabs

• Body: Syntax-highlighted response body with JSON formatting
• Headers: All response headers in key-value format
• cURL: The exact cURL command that was executed — ready to copy and reproduce
• Log: Verbose debug output (see Verbose Logging below)

Advanced cURL Flags

The Advanced tab in the request builder exposes fine-grained control over cURL behavior, organized into 12 categories:

Custom Flags

A raw flags textarea is always available at the bottom of the Advanced tab. Enter any additional cURL arguments directly — quoted strings are supported.

Verbose Logging

Enable the Verbose toggle in the Advanced tab (Debug & Compression section) to capture cURL's full debug output. The Log tab in the response viewer displays it with color-coded lines:

• * lines — connection info, TLS handshake, DNS resolution
• > lines — request data sent to the server
• < lines — response data received from the server

A badge dot appears on the Log tab when debug output is available.

Using .http Files

Create a file with .http or .rest extension:

### Get Users
GET https://api.example.com/users
Authorization: Bearer {{token}}

### Create User
POST https://api.example.com/users
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "email": "john@example.com"
}

Click the "Send Request" CodeLens above each request to execute it.

Collections

Collections let you organize and save requests for reuse.

Creating Collections

1. Open the curl-code sidebar
2. Click the folder + icon in the Collections section
3. Give your collection a name

Saving Requests

• Click Save or Save As in the request panel

Linked Collections

Collections can be linked to a .json file in your workspace. Changes to the file are reflected in the collection and vice versa. This is useful for sharing collections with your team via source control.

Import / Export

• Export: Right-click a collection and select Export Collection to save it as a JSON file
• Import: Click the import icon in the Collections section to load a JSON collection file

Exported collections never contain secret values — they are automatically redacted during export.

Environments

Environments let you define variables that are substituted into your requests at send time. Use the {{variableName}} syntax anywhere in a URL, header value, request body, or authentication field.

Global Environment

The global environment applies to all requests regardless of which collection they belong to. Manage it from the Environments section in the sidebar.

Collection Environments

Each collection can have its own environments. This is useful for switching between configurations (e.g., dev, staging, production) without editing individual requests.

1. A new collection will be given an empty environment
2. Navigate to it in the Environments section
3. Create an environment and add variables

.env File Import

Import standard .env files as environments:

1. Click the file import icon in the Environments section
2. Select a .env file from your workspace
3. Variables are loaded and a file watcher is set up for automatic reload

Imported .env environments are read-only in the sidebar — edit the file directly to make changes. Use the context menu to open, reload, or remove the linked file.

Quick Switch

Click the environment name in the VS Code status bar to quickly switch the active environment. The status bar shows a globe icon for regular environments and a file icon for .env file environments.

Secrets

Environment variables can be marked as Secret to protect sensitive values like API keys, tokens, and passwords.

Creating a Secret Variable

1. Add a new variable to any environment (global or collection)
2. When prompted, select Secret as the variable type
3. Enter the value — input is masked as you type

How Secrets Are Stored

• Secret values are stored in VS Code's SecretStorage, which uses your operating system's credential manager (Keychain on macOS, DPAPI on Windows, libsecret on Linux)
• Secrets are never written to disk in plaintext — collection JSON files contain only redacted placeholders
• Secrets are automatically redacted when exporting a collection
• In the sidebar, secret values are displayed as ••••••

Why This Matters

If you keep your collections in source control (e.g., linked collections in a .json file), your secret values will not leak into your repository. Only the variable names and non-secret values are persisted to disk.

Authentication

The request editor supports built-in authentication methods:

• None: No authentication
• Basic Auth: Username and password (sent as Base64-encoded Authorization header)
• Bearer Token: Token value sent as Authorization: Bearer <token>
• API Key: Key-value pair sent as either a header or a query parameter

Additional authentication methods are available in the Advanced cURL Flags under Auth Extensions: Digest, NTLM, Negotiate/SPNEGO, AWS Sigv4, and OAuth2 Bearer.

Authentication fields support {{variable}} interpolation, so you can store credentials in your environment.