A blazingly fast, terminal-native API client - Postman in your terminal, built in Rust.
Postman is powerful. It's also 300MB of Electron, requires an account, and insists on phoning home. forge gives you the same power in a sub-5MB binary that starts in under 50ms, stores everything as plain TOML files, and never asks who you are.
| Postman | Insomnia | Bruno | forge | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Install size | ~300MB | ~250MB | ~120MB | < 5MB |
| Startup time | 3–8s | 2–5s | 1–3s | < 50ms |
| Requires account | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| File-based storage | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Git-friendly | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Terminal native | No | No | No | Yes |
| Vim keybindings | No | No | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Offline first | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes |
- Modal editing - Vim-inspired Normal / Insert / Command / Visual modes
- HTTP methods - GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS with color-coded badges
- Syntax-highlighted responses - JSON auto pretty-printed, XML, HTML, plain text via
syntect - Async requests - TUI never blocks; cancel in-flight requests with
Esc - Environment variables -
{{variable}}interpolation with layered priority resolution - Collections & workspaces - organize requests into folders, switch projects instantly
- Auth support - Basic, Bearer, API Key, OAuth 2.0
- Request scripting - Rhai pre/post hooks to automate workflows
- Import / Export - Postman, Insomnia, OpenAPI, cURL, HAR
- File-based storage - plain TOML files; diff them, commit them, share them
No published releases yet. Clone and run from source:
git clone https://github.com/AlbertArakelyan/forge.git
cd forge
cargo runFor a release build:
cargo build --release
./target/release/forgeRequirements: Rust stable (1.80+). Install via rustup.rs.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
i / Enter |
Enter Insert mode on the URL bar |
[ / ] |
Cycle HTTP method |
Ctrl+R |
Send request |
Esc |
Return to Normal mode / cancel request |
Tab / Shift+Tab |
Cycle focus between panels |
j / k |
Scroll response body |
1–4 |
Jump to URL bar / request editor / response viewer / sidebar |
q |
Quit |
All data lives in plain files - no database, no cloud sync:
%APPDATA%\forge\ (Windows)
~/.local/share/forge/ (Linux)
~/Library/Application Support/forge/ (macOS)
Every request, collection, environment, and workspace is a human-readable TOML file you can edit, diff, and commit to Git.
- Round 1 - Core Request Engine (URL bar, HTTP executor, response viewer, syntax highlighting)
- Round 2 - Environment Variables (
{{variable}}interpolation, env switcher, secret vars) (partly - more details here) - Round 3 - Collections & Workspaces (sidebar tree, tabs, file persistence)
- Round 4 - Authentication (Basic, Bearer, API Key, OAuth 2.0, Digest)
- Round 5 - Request Headers & Query Params (key-value editors, autocomplete, bidirectional URL sync)
- Round 6 - Request Body Editor (JSON, Form, Multipart, GraphQL, Raw, Binary)
- Round 7 - Response Viewer (collapsible JSON, search, timing waterfall)
- Round 8 - History (persistent, searchable request log)
- Round 9 - Scripting (Rhai pre/post hooks, script console)
- Round 10 - Streaming & SSE (real-time event display, AI API streaming)
- Round 11 - Import & Export (Postman, OpenAPI, cURL, Insomnia, Bruno, HAR)
- Round 12 - Configuration & Theming (themes, layouts, custom keybindings, mouse support)
- Round 13 - Polish, Performance & Release (< 50ms startup, virtual scrolling, distribution)
- TUI -
ratatui+crossterm - HTTP -
reqwest(rustls, streaming, multipart) - Async -
tokio - Syntax highlighting -
syntect - Scripting -
rhai - Serialization -
serde+toml+serde_json
MIT - Copyright (c) 2026 Albert Arakelyan