qurli

A lightweight, terminal-based HTTP client built with Rust.

qurli is designed for developers, DevOps engineers, and SREs who want the power of curl with a clean, interactive terminal UI. It is fast, minimal, and entirely keyboard-driven.

What's New in 1.1.0

• Runtime variables with {{name}} substitution across URLs, headers, auth, and body.
• Automatic JSON response extraction with simple paths like $.access_token and $.items[0].id.
• Secret-aware variable masking in the UI and safe curl preview.
• Safer history persistence that avoids storing runtime variables and redacts direct auth secrets.
• More robust request validation, terminal cleanup, and test coverage.

Features

• HTTP Methods: Support for GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE.
• Header Editor: Dynamically add and edit request headers.
• Body Editor: Full support for raw JSON bodies with multiline editing.
• Auth Support: Easily add Bearer tokens or Basic Auth.
• Live Curl Preview: Generates an equivalent curl command in real-time as you edit.
• Response Viewer: View status codes, response time, headers, and pretty-printed JSON responses.
• Request History: Automatically saves and loads your last request state.
• Runtime Variables: Reuse values with {{token}} placeholders in URLs, headers, auth, and body.
• JSON Extraction Rules: Extract response fields like token = $.access_token after a request.
• Keyboard Driven: Optimized for speed with intuitive keybindings.

Keybindings

• Tab / Shift+Tab: Cycle through UI sections (URL, Headers, Auth, Body, Method).
• i / Enter: Enter Insert Mode for the focused section.
• Esc: Return to Normal Mode.
• m: Cycle through HTTP methods (Normal Mode).
• s: Send request (Normal Mode).
• Ctrl+r: Resend the current request with the latest runtime variables (Normal Mode).
• y: Copy generated curl command to clipboard (Normal Mode).
• c: Copy response body to clipboard (Normal Mode).
• v: Focus the variables/extraction panel (Normal Mode).
• e: Edit JSON extraction rules (Normal Mode).
• x: Run extraction rules manually against the latest response (Normal Mode).
• Ctrl+n: Clear all inputs to start a fresh request (Normal Mode).
• j / k: Scroll the response body (Normal Mode).
• q: Quit.

Runtime Variables

Use {{name}} placeholders anywhere in the request:

GET {{base_url}}/api/users/{{user_id}}
Authorization: Bearer {{token}}

Variables live in memory for the current session and are not persisted by default. Secret-looking variables such as token, password, secret, api_key, and authorization are masked in the UI and safe curl preview.

Before a request is sent, qurli substitutes variables in:

• URL
• Headers
• Auth field
• Request body

If a placeholder cannot be resolved, the request is blocked and the missing variable name is shown in the response/status area instead of sending a partial request.

JSON Extraction

Add extraction rules in the Extract panel:

token = $.access_token
user_id = $.user.id
first_item = $.items[0].id

After each successful JSON response, qurli runs the rules and stores matching values as runtime variables. Missing paths are ignored, and invalid JSON is reported in the status bar.

Example login flow:

1. Send a login request.
2. Add token = $.access_token.
3. Send the request and let qurli extract the token.
4. Use Authorization: Bearer {{token}} in the next request.

The on-screen curl preview masks secret variables. Pressing y copies the real substituted curl command, so avoid doing that in shared terminals when secrets are present.

Supported extraction syntax is intentionally small:

• $.field
• $.nested.field
• $.items[0].id

History and Secrets

qurli stores the last request template under your user config directory. Runtime variables are not written to history. Direct Authorization and auth field values are redacted before history is saved, and JSON body fields with secret-looking names are redacted where possible.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Rust (latest stable)
• pkg-config and libssl-dev (if using system OpenSSL, though qurli defaults to rustls)

Via Cargo

The easiest way to install qurli is via crates.io:

cargo install qurli

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/crypticani/qurli.git
cd qurli
cargo build --release

The binary will be available at ./target/release/qurli.

Tech Stack

• Rust: Language
• Ratatui: Terminal UI framework
• Crossterm: Terminal backend
• Reqwest: Async HTTP client
• Tokio: Async runtime
• Serde: Serialization/Deserialization
• tui-textarea: Text input handling

License

MIT