Restly - REST API Client for VS Code

A free, open-source REST API client that lives in your editor. Build and send HTTP requests, organise them in collections, switch environments, check responses with tests and keep everything in git next to your code.

No account, no sign-in, no telemetry, no paid tier. MIT licensed.

Features

• Request editor: any method, query params kept in sync with the URL, headers (with bulk edit), and a JSON / text / XML / form URL-encoded / multipart (with files) / binary file body.
• Auth: Bearer token, Basic, API key in a header or query. A request can inherit its collection's auth.
• Response viewer: status, time, size and redirect count. The body view pretty-prints and highlights JSON, XML and HTML. Images preview inline. You also get a headers table and can copy the body or save it to a file.
• Collections and folders: create, rename, duplicate, delete and export from the sidebar.
• Environments: {{variables}} everywhere (URL, params, headers, body and auth). Dynamic values: {{$guid}}, {{$timestamp}}, {{$isoTimestamp}} and {{$randomInt}}. Secret variables are kept in VS Code's secret storage, never in your repo.
• Tests: check the status, a header, a JSON path, the body text or the response time. Set env var stores a value from the response (a login token, say) for the next request.
• History: every sent request, one click to reopen.
• Import: paste a cURL command into the URL bar, or import from the clipboard or a file. Supported files are Postman collections (v2.0 / v2.1), Postman environments and Restly exports.
• Code snippets: cURL, JavaScript fetch, axios and Python requests, with variables filled in.
• Follows your VS Code theme and proxy settings.

Install

Search for Restly in the VS Code Extensions view, or install it from the Visual Studio Marketplace:

code --install-extension talha-noyon.restly

Each version is also attached to a GitHub Release as a .vsix file: run code --install-extension restly-x.y.z.vsix, or use ⋯ → Install from VSIX… in the Extensions view.

Getting started

1. Open the Restly icon in the activity bar.
2. Click + New Request, enter a URL and press Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on macOS) or Send.
3. Press Ctrl+S to save it into a collection.
4. Under Environments, create one (for example Development) and add baseUrl = https://api.example.com. Then use {{baseUrl}}/users in your requests. The active environment is shown in the status bar; click it to switch.

Login flow with tests

On your login request, add a test row:

Then set other requests' auth to Bearer with token {{token}}, or set it once on the collection and leave requests on Inherit.

Where data is stored

Set restly.storage to global to keep collections and environments in VS Code's global storage instead, shared by every window. Without an open folder Restly always uses global storage.

Each collection is a separate, pretty-printed JSON file, so diffs and merges stay readable. Restly reloads the sidebar when those files change, for example after a git pull.

Variable lookup order: active environment → collection variables → Global.

Settings

Development

npm install
npm run build      # bundles dist/extension.js and dist/webview.js
npm test           # vitest
npm run typecheck
npm run lint
npm run package    # builds restly-<version>.vsix

Press F5 in VS Code to start an Extension Development Host with Restly loaded.

Layout:

src/shared/      pure logic: model, variables, cURL/Postman import, codegen, tests
src/extension/   extension host: HTTP client, storage, sidebar trees, panels
src/webview/     request and environment editors (Preact + CodeMirror)
test/            vitest suites, including the HTTP client against a local server

Releasing

1. Bump version in package.json and add a CHANGELOG.md entry; commit and push.
2. Publish a GitHub release tagged vX.Y.Z.

The Release workflow then builds the .vsix, attaches it to the release and publishes it to the VS Code Marketplace with Trusted Publishing (vsce publish --oidc), so no Marketplace token is stored anywhere. It needs a Trusted Publishing policy on the talha-noyon publisher for repository Talha-Noyon/restly and workflow release.yml. Running the workflow by hand (Actions → Release → Run workflow) publishes the current main.

License

MIT