Resterm

<h1 align="center"> <img src="_media/resterm_logo.png" alt="Resterm" width="200" /> <br> Resterm </h1> <p align="center"> <em>A terminal client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, and SSE.</em> </p> <p align="center"> <img src="_media/resterm_base.png" alt="Screenshot of Resterm TUI base" width="720" /> </p>

Resterm is a keyboard-driven API client that lives in your terminal and keeps everything local. It stores requests as plain files, supports SSH tunnels, Kubernetes port-forwarding, and OAuth 2.0, and gives you a fast feedback loop with history, diffs, tracing, and profiling.

Quick links: Screenshots, Installation, Quick Start, Features and Documentation.

Why Resterm

• Requests live in plain .http / .rest files.
• Conditional logic - @when, @skip-if, @if/@elif/@else, @switch/@case, and @for-each.
• Multi-step workflows with @workflow / @step.
• Captures, variables, and assertions (@capture, @var, @assert).
• RestermScript - a small, safe expression language purpose.
• OAuth 2.0 (client credentials, password, auth code + PKCE), SSH tunnels, and Kubernetes port-forwards are built in - no extra tools.
• Timeline tracing, profiling, and compare runs across environments.
• Streaming transcripts and an interactive console for WebSocket and SSE sessions.
• No cloud sync, no accounts, no telemetry. Everything stays local.
• There is no AI integration and there will never be.

Screenshot tour

<details> <summary>See the UI in action</summary> <p align="center"> <strong>Workflows</strong> </p> <p align="center"> <img src="_media/resterm_workflow.png" alt="Screenshot of Resterm with Workflow" width="720" /> </p> <p align="center"> <strong>Trace and Timeline</strong> </p> <p align="center"> <img src="_media/resterm_trace_timeline.png" alt="Screenshot of Resterm with timeline" width="720" /> </p> <p align="center"> <strong>Profiler</strong> </p> <p align="center"> <img src="_media/resterm_profiler.png" alt="Screenshot of Resterm profiler" width="720" /> </p> <p align="center"> <strong>RestermScript</strong> </p> <p align="center"> <img src="_media/resterm_script.png" alt="Screenshot of Resterm with RestermScript" width="720" /> </p> <p align="center"> <strong>OAuth browser demo (old UI design)</strong> </p> <p align="center"> <img src="_media/oauth.gif" alt="Resterm OAuth flow" width="720" /> </p> </details>

Quick Start

1. Install Resterm using the command that matches your OS.

   # Linux/macOS (Homebrew)
   brew install resterm
   
   # Linux (install script)
   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm/main/install.sh | bash
   

   # Windows (PowerShell)
   iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm/main/install.ps1 | iex
   

2. Bootstrap a tiny workspace.

   mkdir my-api && cd my-api
   resterm init
   

3. Run it and send your first request.

   resterm
   

   Press Ctrl+Enter in the editor to send the highlighted request.

If you do not want files yet, just run resterm, type a URL in the editor, and press Ctrl+Enter. If you already have a curl command, paste it into the editor and press Ctrl+Enter to import it.

Key files

These are the files you will see most often in a Resterm workspace.

• .http / .rest files store your requests, metadata, and named steps.
• resterm.env.json holds environment variables and secrets for one or more environments.
• resterm.env.example.json is a safe template you can commit and share.
• .rts files contain RestermScript helpers for reuse and small bits of logic.
• RESTERM.md is optional project notes created by resterm init.

Overview

Protocols and transports cover the following.

• HTTP, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, and SSE are supported out of the box.
• SSH tunnels include host key verification, keep-alives, retries, and persistent sessions.
• Kubernetes port-forwards target pods, services, deployments, and statefulsets with named port resolution, pod readiness checks, retries, and persistent sessions.

Workspace and files focus on the following.

• .http / .rest files are discovered automatically and the request list stays in sync as you edit.
• The request editor includes inline syntax highlighting, search, and contextual metadata hints.
• Environment files are treated as first-class input. resterm init adds resterm.env.json to .gitignore but any custom env files passed via the CLI are not ignored automatically.

Automation and reuse include the following.

• Variables, captures, constants, and multi-step workflows.
• RestermScript (RTS) and optional JavaScript hooks handle request-time logic.
• Curl commands and OpenAPI specs can be imported directly into request collections.

Debugging and inspection provide the following.

• Pretty/raw/header/diff/history views are available with split panes.
• Streaming transcripts are recorded and an interactive console is available for WebSocket and SSE.
• Timeline tracing and profiling help find slow or flaky endpoints.

Security and auth cover the following.

• OAuth 2.0 client credentials, password grant, and authorization code + PKCE are supported.
• Tokens are cached per environment and refreshed automatically.

Customization includes the following.

• Custom themes and keybindings.

Navigation & layout cheat sheet

A few keys that make Resterm feel “native” quickly:

• Pane focus & layout

  • Tab / Shift+Tab - move focus between sidebar, editor, and response.
  • g+r - jump to Requests (sidebar).
  • g+i - jump to Editor.
  • g+p - jump to Response.
  • g+h / g+l - adjust layout:
    • When the left pane (sidebar) is focused: change sidebar width.
    • Otherwise: change editor/response split.
  • g+v / g+s - toggle response pane between inline and stacked layout.
  • g+1, g+2, g+3 + minimize/restore sidebar, editor, response.
  • g+z / g+Z - zoom the focused pane / clear zoom.

• Environments & globals

  • Ctrl+E - switch environments.
  • Ctrl+G - inspect captured globals.

• Working with responses

  • Ctrl+V / Ctrl+U - split the response pane for side-by-side comparison.
  • When response pane is focused:
    • Ctrl+Shift+C or g y - copy the entire Pretty/Raw/Headers tab to the clipboard (no mouse selection needed).

---

[!TIP] If you only remember three shortcuts…

• Ctrl+Enter - send request
• Tab / Shift+Tab - switch panes
• g+p - jump to response

Installation

Linux / macOS (Homebrew)

brew install resterm

[!NOTE] Homebrew installs should be updated with Homebrew (brew upgrade resterm). The built-in resterm --update command is for binaries installed from GitHub releases or install scripts.

Linux / macOS (Shell script)

[!IMPORTANT] Pre-built Linux binaries depend on glibc 2.32 or newer. If you run an older distro, build from source on a machine with a newer glibc toolchain or upgrade glibc before using the release archives.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm/main/install.sh | bash

or with wget:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm/main/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell)

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm/main/install.ps1 | iex

These scripts detect your architecture, download the latest release, and install the binary.

Manual installation

[!NOTE] The manual install helper uses curl and jq. Install jq with your package manager (brew install jq, sudo apt install jq, etc.).

Linux / macOS

# Detect latest tag
LATEST_TAG=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/unkn0wn-root/resterm/releases/latest | jq -r .tag_name)

# Download the matching binary (Darwin/Linux + amd64/arm64)
curl -fL -o resterm "https://github.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm/releases/download/${LATEST_TAG}/resterm_$(uname -s)_$(uname -m)"

# Make it executable and move it onto your PATH
chmod +x resterm
sudo install -m 0755 resterm /usr/local/bin/resterm

Windows (PowerShell)

$latest = Invoke-RestMethod https://api.github.com/repos/unkn0wn-root/resterm/releases/latest
$asset  = $latest.assets | Where-Object { $_.name -like 'resterm_Windows_*' } | Select-Object -First 1
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $asset.browser_download_url -OutFile resterm.exe
# Optionally relocate to a directory on PATH, e.g.:
Move-Item resterm.exe "$env:USERPROFILE\bin\resterm.exe"

From source

go install github.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm/cmd/resterm@latest

Update

resterm --check-update
resterm --update

The first command reports whether a newer release is available. The second downloads and installs it (Windows users receive a staged binary to swap on restart).

Quick Configuration Overview

• Environments are JSON files (resterm.env.json) discovered in the request directory, workspace root, or CWD. Dotenv files (.env, .env.*) are opt-in via --env-file and are single-workspace. Prefer JSON when you need multiple environments in one file.
• Flags you probably reach for most are --workspace, --file, --env, --env-file, --timeout, --insecure, --follow, --proxy, --recursive, --from-curl, --from-openapi, and --http-out.
• Config is stored at $HOME/Library/Application Support/resterm, %APPDATA%\resterm, or $HOME/.config/resterm and can be overridden with RESTERM_CONFIG_DIR.

Collections

You can export a workspace into a Git-friendly Resterm bundle. The exported bundle always includes a manifest.json with checksums, so imports can verify file integrity before writing anything.

When Resterm se