⚡ Open Post

API Testing. Inside Your Code.

Open Post is a lightweight, fully offline VS Code extension for testing REST and GraphQL APIs — no context switching, no external tools, no cloud dependency.

Quick Start

1. Click the ⚡ Open Post icon in the Activity Bar (or press Cmd+Alt+P / Ctrl+Alt+P)
2. The webview panel opens automatically alongside the sidebar tree views
3. Enter a URL and click Send (or Cmd+Enter / Ctrl+Enter)

Try it now:

GET  https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1
GET  https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users
POST https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts
     Body (JSON): { "title": "Hello", "body": "World", "userId": 1 }

5-minute workflow:

1. Create an environment — click Environments tab → New Environment → add base_url = https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com
2. Create a collection — click Collections tab → type a name → press Enter
3. Build a request — enter {{base_url}}/posts/1, click Send
4. Save it — click Save in the request builder, pick your collection
5. Export code — click the </> button to generate code in 11 languages

Features

🚀 HTTP Client

• All methods: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
• Query parameters with bidirectional URL sync
• Custom headers with autocomplete for standard HTTP headers
• Multi-tab interface with session persistence — tabs restore when you reopen the panel

📝 Body Types

🔐 Authentication

• Basic Auth — username & password
• Bearer Token — paste your token
• API Key — header or query param
• OAuth 2.0 — authorization code & client credentials flows
• AWS Signature V4 — access key, secret, region, service

Auth is automatically injected into generated code exports.

🌍 Environments

Create environments (Dev, Staging, Production) with key-value variables. Use {{variable}} syntax anywhere — URL, headers, body. Switch environments from the top bar dropdown.

URL:    {{base_url}}/users/{{user_id}}
Header: Authorization: Bearer {{token}}
Body:   { "api_key": "{{api_key}}" }

📁 Collections & Folders

• Organize requests into collections with nested folder trees
• Local collections — stored per workspace in .openpost/
• Global collections — stored in ~/.openpost/global/, shared across all workspaces
• Import/export as Open Post JSON or Postman v2.1 format
• Import from OpenAPI / Swagger specs (auto-creates collection + environment)
• Full CRUD from both the sidebar and VS Code native tree views

🌐 Global Storage & Cross-Window Sync

• Global collections, environments, and history live in ~/.openpost/global/
• Changes sync across VS Code windows automatically via file system watcher
• Both the webview sidebar and VS Code tree views show Local and Global groups
• Requests track their source scope so saves go back to the right place

📊 Response Viewer

• Status code with color indicator (green/yellow/red)
• Response time and body size
• Syntax highlighting with line numbers and code folding
• Pretty-printed JSON, raw body, and collapsible tree view
• Response headers table
• Schema extraction for JSON responses
• History dropdown — browse or delete past responses per URL

📚 History & Snapshots

• Request history — every send is stored locally, browsable from the sidebar
• Global history — shared across workspaces
• Snapshot contracts — track response structure changes over time
• Automatic snapshot records — every send for a saved request is captured
• Variant detection — notifies when a response returns a new JSON structure
• Rename, delete, and browse snapshots from the sidebar or tree view

🍪 Cookie Jar

• Automatic cookie storage and sending across requests
• Cookie manager accessible from the settings menu
• Toggle cookies on/off per workspace

💻 Code Export

Generate ready-to-use code from your request in 11 languages:

cURL · JavaScript (Fetch) · JavaScript (Axios) · Python (Requests) · Python (http.client) · Go · Java · C# · Ruby · PHP · Rust · Swift

• Environment variables are resolved in generated code
• Auth headers/params are injected automatically
• Toggle the code panel with the </> button next to Send

🤖 AI Prompt Generator

Generate copy-paste-ready prompts for AI tools with 5 dialects:

• Explain API — understand what an endpoint does
• Write Integration — get production-ready code
• Debug Response — troubleshoot issues
• Write Tests — generate test cases
• Generate Docs — create API documentation

Includes full request context: method, URL, auth, headers, body, and response.

📜 Pre-Request & Test Scripts

Write JavaScript that runs before or after requests:

// Pre-request: set dynamic header
request.headers["X-Timestamp"] = Date.now().toString();

// Test: assert response
console.assert(response.status === 200, "Expected 200");
const body = response.json();
console.assert(body.id !== undefined, "Should have id");

📥 Import & Export

• Postman v2.1 — import and export collections
• OpenAPI / Swagger — import specs (JSON or YAML) to auto-generate collections and environments
• cURL — import cURL commands
• Open Post JSON — native format, git-friendly

⚙️ Settings

All settings available in two places:

• Webview popup — gear icon in the top bar
• VS Code Settings — Settings → Extensions → Open Post

🎨 Theme Integration

Adapts to your VS Code theme — dark, light, and high contrast. All colors use native VS Code CSS variables.

Installation

From Marketplace

Search for Open Post in the VS Code Extensions panel and click Install.

From VSIX

1. Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P → Extensions: Install from VSIX...
2. Select the .vsix file
3. Reload VS Code

From Source

git clone https://github.com/open-post/open-post.git
cd open-post
npm install
cd src/webview && npm install && cd ../..
./build.sh
code --install-extension open-post-*.vsix

Data Storage

.openpost/                    ← per workspace (local)
  ├── collections.json
  ├── environments.json
  ├── history.json
  ├── snapshots.json
  ├── cookies.json
  ├── session.json
  └── config.json

~/.openpost/global/           ← shared across workspaces (global)
  ├── collections.json
  ├── environments.json
  ├── history.json
  └── config.json

• No cloud sync — your data stays on your machine
• Git-friendly — commit .openpost/ to share with your team
• No telemetry, no analytics

Keyboard Shortcuts

License

MIT — free and open source.

Built with ❤️ for developers who live in their editor.