HTTP Client Runner

Run, test and monitor the .http files you already have.

Your existing REST Client files work unchanged. Nothing to migrate, nothing to rewrite.

You never write a test

Send a request once and the response becomes the baseline. From then on you are told only what changed.

Comparison is by structure, not value. Ids that increment, tokens that rotate and timestamps that move are all silent. You hear about it when a field disappears, a type changes or a status code moves.

That is the whole reason API tests get written and then deleted a week later: false alarms. There are none here.

Three places, one engine

In the editor. A Send action sits above every request. The response opens beside it as a normal editor tab, so it is searchable and diffable.

In CI. The same files become a regression suite.

npx @sellerkit/httprunner ./api --reporter junit --out reports/http.xml

Exits non-zero when something changed, so a pull request can be blocked.

As a monitor, with no server to host.

npx @sellerkit/httprunner init ./api --cron '*/30 * * * *'

This writes two GitHub Actions workflows. The scheduled one replays your requests and opens an issue in your repository when a response stops matching. No infrastructure, no third-party dashboard, no monthly platform bill.

A badge that tells the truth

The monitor writes .http-status.json into your repository. Point a shields.io endpoint at it and your README shows whether the API still behaves the way it was recorded:

![API status](https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OWNER/REPO/main/.http-status.json)

It renders as api | 12 passing in green, or api | 1 of 12 changed in red.

The file is generated in your repository, served from your repository, and committed only when the status actually changes. Nothing is sent anywhere, and the badge says something about your API rather than about this tool.

You can also produce it from a single run:

httprunner ./api --badge .http-status.json

Documentation that cannot go stale

httprunner ./api --docs API.md

This writes a Markdown API reference built from your requests and from the responses that were actually recorded: the method and URL, the headers, the request body, the status, and the shape of what came back. Because it is generated from real runs rather than written by hand, it cannot drift away from the API the way a hand-maintained document does.

The generated monitor workflow keeps it current for you.

Secrets are redacted before anything is written. Authorization, Cookie, any header whose name looks like a key, any value that looks like a bearer token, and any JSON field whose name matches password, secret, token, api_key, credential and similar are replaced with <redacted>. Variable placeholders such as {{baseUrl}} are left as they are, since they name a value rather than contain one.

Bringing in what you already have

httprunner import postman-collection.json -o api.http

Reads a Postman v2.1 collection or an Insomnia v4 export and writes plain .http files: folders become request titles, {{variables}} are collected and left blank at the top of the file, bearer auth becomes an Authorization header, and form bodies get the content type Postman leaves implicit.

Nothing is uploaded anywhere. The conversion happens on your machine, and the result is a text file you can read, diff and commit.

Reviewers see what changed

The generated CI workflow comments on a pull request when a response no longer matches what was recorded, with the same diff you would see in the terminal. The people reviewing the change find out on the change, rather than after it ships.

Everything you already use keeps working

• # @name login, and {{login.response.body.$.token}} to chain auth
• {{$guid}} {{$timestamp}} {{$randomInt}} {{$processEnv}} {{$dotenv}}
• < ./payload.json to load a body from disk
• http-client.env.json and http-client.private.env.json, the same shape IntelliJ uses, so a team can share one set of files across both editors
• .env

Add # @expect status 201 or # @expect body $.id exists when you want to say something explicitly.

What costs money

Sending one request stays free. That is not going to change.

Running a whole file, recording and comparing responses, CI and monitoring are the paid part. There is a 14 day trial, no card and no account needed to start.

5 USD a month, or 48 USD a year. Get a licence

A licence is a key. Paste it into the setting, or set HTTPRUNNER_KEY for CI. There is nothing to sign up for and no telemetry.

Two promises, because plenty of tools have broken them:

1. Nothing you already made gets locked. When a trial or license ends, your .http files and everything under __http__/ stay readable and usable.
2. Our outage is not your outage. If the license server cannot be reached, the run continues. Your build never fails because of us.

Commands

The extension is 40 KB. It does not embed a browser, a desktop app or a sign-in.