REST Client & HTTP Client for VS Code (no login)

Send HTTP requests from plain .http and .rest files and read the response right beside them. There is no account, no sign-in and no cloud sync. Your requests live in your repo as text, so you can review and share them like code.

Free, with no limits

• Send Request link above every request, or Ctrl+Alt+R (Cmd+Alt+R on macOS) with the cursor in it.
• Response viewer: status, time and size; the body as a collapsible JSON tree, pretty or raw; XML and HTML source; images; headers, cookies, a timing breakdown (DNS, TCP, TLS, waiting, download) and the request that was actually sent. Find in body, copy any value with a click, save the body to a file.
• Variables and environments: @baseUrl = ... in the file, environments in http-client.env.json or settings, $shared values, {{$guid}}, {{$timestamp}}, {{$randomInt}}, {{$datetime}}, {{$processEnv}} and {{$dotenv}}. Switch with Ctrl+Alt+E. Hover a variable to see its value, with secrets masked.
• Chained requests: name a request with # @name login and use {{login.response.body.$.token}} or a response header in the next one. If you have not sent login yet, it is sent first.
• cURL both ways: paste a cURL command from browser DevTools as a request, or copy any request as cURL with its variables filled in.
• GraphQL (X-Request-Type: GraphQL), form bodies, Basic auth written as user password, body from a file (< ./body.json), cookies kept for the session, redirects followed, gzip and brotli decoded.
• History of the last 50 requests, stored as written, without your secret values.

Pro tools

Zovo Pro: USD 19 once. One purchase turns on the Pro tools in every Zovo extension. Each tool here has 3 free tries first:

• Import a collection: a collection export in the common v2.x collection format (with its environments), a v4 workspace export or an OpenAPI / Swagger file becomes a .http file plus http-client.env.json.
• Run all requests with assertions: run a file or a whole folder in order with # @assert status == 200 style checks, and get a JUnit XML file for CI plus an HTML report.
• Generate code from a request: JavaScript fetch, Node axios, Python requests, Go, C#, Java, PowerShell or cURL.

Quick start

1. Create a file named api.http (or run REST Client (Zovo): New .http File).
2. Write a request and click Send Request above it:

@baseUrl = https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com

### List posts
# @name posts
GET {{baseUrl}}/posts?userId=1
Accept: application/json

### Read the first one
GET {{baseUrl}}/posts/{{posts.response.body.$[0].id}}

### Create one
POST {{baseUrl}}/posts
Content-Type: application/json

{ "title": "hello", "userId": 1 }

Requests are separated by lines that start with ###. Headers follow the request line; the body comes after one empty line.

File format

Environments

http-client.env.json next to your .http files (or in a parent folder):

{
  "$shared": { "version": "v2" },
  "dev":  { "baseUrl": "http://localhost:3000", "token": "dev-token" },
  "prod": { "baseUrl": "https://api.example.com" }
}

Put secrets in http-client.private.env.json and keep that file out of git. The setting zovoRest.environmentVariables holds environments too.

Commands

Privacy

The extension sends only the requests you send. It has no telemetry, no account and no update check of its own. Cookies stay in memory for the window. History keeps requests as you wrote them, so values from environments and .env files are not stored.

Limits in this version

• No proxy support yet: requests go out directly, not through http.proxy.
• No client certificates (mTLS) and no NTLM, Digest or AWS signature auth. Bearer, Basic and API key headers work.
• Response handler scripts (> {% ... %}) are not run. Use # @assert lines with Run all requests.
• HTML responses show as source, not as a rendered page.
• One request at a time per window; sending a new one cancels the one in flight.

Support Zovo

Zovo Pro: USD 19 once, every Zovo viewer. Get Zovo Pro on GitHub Sponsors to turn on the Pro tools in this extension and in the other Zovo extensions you use. The free features stay free.

Zovo extensions have no ads and no tracking. They are made by theluckystrike on GitHub. You can also support the work with no Pro:

• Sponsor on GitHub
• PayPal
• Follow theluckystrike on GitHub

Need your format supported?

Open a format request with a sample file, and I reply there whether it can be done. For USD 299 once, through this GitHub Sponsors tier, I add your file format or a missing feature to this extension, with tests, within 7 days.

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See all Zovo extensions on the Marketplace.