HTTPie

HTTPie exists because curl is a fine tool with a syntax nobody enjoys typing. Its HTTP and HTTPS commands build arbitrary requests out of short, readable arguments and print responses formatted and colorized, which turns API work from a quoting exercise into something closer to conversation.

A request is assembled from plain tokens on the command line. A token like name=John becomes a JSON field, a token like X-API-Token:123 becomes a header, and the method and URL sit where you would expect them. JSON support is built in, so bodies are serialized and responses pretty printed without reaching for a flag.

The everyday capabilities are these.

• Expressive syntax: headers, query parameters and JSON fields expressed as short key value tokens.
• Formatted output: responses colorized and indented in the terminal by default.
• Forms and file uploads: multipart bodies and file attachments without extra tooling.
• Sessions: persistent sessions carry cookies and authentication across invocations.
• Offline mode: build and print a request without sending it, useful for checking what a client would emit.
• Downloads: wget-like saving of response bodies straight to disk.

HTTPS, proxies, custom headers and authentication are all handled directly. One footnote if you judge projects by stars. The repository was briefly made private by accident and GitHub deleted a community built over a decade, some 54,000 stars, which is why the counter looks modest for a client this widely used.