API Client TUI

A powerful terminal-based API client built with Bubble Tea, providing a fast and efficient alternative to GUI tools like Postman or Insomnia.

Features

Core Functionality

• Multi-panel TUI with request builder and response viewer
• HTTP Methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, HEAD, OPTIONS
• Headers Management: Multi-line header input with key:value format
• Request Body: Support for JSON, form data, plain text
• Response Formatting: Auto-formatted JSON with syntax highlighting
• Real-time Status: HTTP status codes, response times, error handling

Enhanced Features

• Request History: Automatically saves and recalls previous requests
• Environment Variables: Support for {{VARIABLE}} substitution
• Collections: Save and organize related requests
• Response Analysis: Detailed response statistics and content analysis

Installation

Binary Installation (mac)

curl -L https://github.com/nutcas3/api-client-tui/releases/latest/download/api-client-tui --output api-client-tui

sudo mv api-client-tui /usr/local/bin/

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/api-client-tui

api-client-tui

From Source

git clone https://github.com/nutcas3/api-client-tui.git
cd api-client-tui
go build -o api-client-tui
./api-client-tui

Using Go Install

go install github.com/nutcas3/api-client-tui@latest

Usage Guide

Navigation

• Tab/Shift+Tab: Navigate between panels
• ↑/↓: Change HTTP method when method panel is focused
• Enter: Send request (when URL panel is focused)
• q: Quit application
• ?: Toggle help
• Ctrl+h: Toggle request history
• Ctrl+e: Toggle environment variables

Request Building

URL Panel

Enter your API endpoint

https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1

Method Panel

Use ↑/↓ to select HTTP method

• Available: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, HEAD, OPTIONS

Headers Panel

Enter headers (one per line)

Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer your-token-here
X-Custom-Header: custom-value

Body Panel

Enter request body (for POST/PUT/PATCH)

{
  "title": "Test Post",
  "body": "This is a test",
  "userId": 1
}

Environment Variables

Create ~/.api-client-tui/environments.json:

{
  "development": {
    "BASE_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
    "API_KEY": "dev-key-123",
    "USER_ID": "1"
  },
  "production": {
    "BASE_URL": "https://api.example.com",
    "API_KEY": "prod-key-789",
    "USER_ID": "42"
  }
}

Use variables in requests:

• URL: {{BASE_URL}}/users/{{USER_ID}}
• Headers: Authorization: Bearer {{API_KEY}}

Keyboard Shortcuts

Navigation

• Tab: Next panel
• Shift+Tab: Previous panel
• ↑/↓: Navigate items (methods, history)

Actions

• Enter: Send request (when URL panel is focused)
• Ctrl+h: Toggle request history
• Ctrl+e: Toggle environment variables

General

• q: Quit application
• ?: Toggle help

Common Request Examples

1. JSON API Request

• Method: POST
• Headers: Content-Type: application/json
• Body: {"key": "value"}

2. Form Submission

• Method: POST
• Headers: Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
• Body: username=admin&password=secret

3. File Upload (Multipart)

• Method: POST
• Headers: Content-Type: multipart/form-data
• Body: Use appropriate multipart format

Configuration

The application uses the following configuration files in the ~/.api-client-tui/ directory:

Main Config (config.json)

{
  "timeout": 5,
  "auto_format_json": true,
  "save_history": true,
  "current_env": "development",
  "show_response_time": true,
  "truncate_response": 1000,
  "max_response_size": "10MB",
  "large_response_warning": "1MB"
}

Collections (collections.json)

{
  "User Management": [
    {
      "name": "Get All Users",
      "url": "{{BASE_URL}}/users",
      "method": "GET",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer {{API_TOKEN}}"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Create User",
      "url": "{{BASE_URL}}/users",
      "method": "POST",
      "headers": {
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        "Authorization": "Bearer {{API_TOKEN}}"
      },
      "body": "{\"name\": \"{{USER_NAME}}\", \"email\": \"{{USER_EMAIL}}\"}"
    }
  ]
}

Troubleshooting

Response Formatting

The application automatically handles various response formats:

JSON Responses

• Automatic pretty-printing with proper indentation
• Error handling for malformed JSON
• Size-based truncation for large responses (>100KB)

Text and HTML Responses

• Automatic truncation for large responses
• Preview mode for HTML content
• Line wrapping for better readability

Character Encoding

• Automatic charset detection from Content-Type headers
• UTF-8 validation and conversion
• Fallback to common encodings (windows-1252, iso-8859-1, shift-jis, gbk, big5)
• Replacement of invalid characters with �

Large Responses

• Size warnings for responses over 1MB
• Automatic truncation for responses over 10MB
• Display of response size in KB/MB

Authentication Issues

• Verify token format in headers
• Check token expiration
• Ensure correct header names

Network Timeouts

• Default timeout is 5 seconds
• Connection attempts timeout after 2 seconds
• TLS handshake timeout is 2 seconds
• Response header timeout is 2.5 seconds
• Large responses (>1MB) show size warnings
• Responses over 10MB are automatically truncated

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Bubble Tea - A powerful TUI framework
• Bubbles - TUI components for Bubble Tea
• Lip Gloss - Style definitions for terminal applications