RawRequest

Code-first HTTP client. Write requests in .http files. Run them from the terminal, your AI assistant, or a full desktop GUI.

Quick Install

macOS (Homebrew):

brew tap portablesheep/rawrequest https://github.com/portablesheep/homebrew-rawrequest
brew install --cask rawrequest

macOS / Linux (curl):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/portablesheep/RawRequest/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/portablesheep/RawRequest/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

Manual: Download from Releases.

What is RawRequest?

RawRequest has two components that share the same .http file format and execution engine:

.http File Format

# === Environments ===
@env.dev.baseUrl = http://localhost:3000
@env.prod.baseUrl = https://api.example.com

# === Variables ===
@contentType = application/json

### GET request
GET {{baseUrl}}/users
Accept: application/json

### POST with body
POST {{baseUrl}}/users
Content-Type: {{contentType}}

{
  "name": "Jane",
  "email": "jane@example.com"
}

### Secrets
POST {{baseUrl}}/auth/login
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "password": "{{secret:myPassword}}"
}

### Scripts (pre and post)
@name login
POST {{baseUrl}}/auth/login
Content-Type: application/json

< {
  // Pre-request script
  console.log('Logging in...');
}

{
  "username": "admin",
  "password": "{{secret:password}}"
}

> {
  // Post-response script
  assert(response.status === 200, `Expected 200, got ${response.status}`);
  setVar('token', response.json.token);
}

### Request chaining
@name getProfile
@depends login
GET {{baseUrl}}/profile
Authorization: Bearer {{token}}

### Load testing
@name healthCheck
@load
duration: 30s
users: 50
rampUp: 5s
targetRPS: 200

GET {{baseUrl}}/health

Key syntax:

• ### separates requests
• @name identifies a request for chaining/targeting
• @depends declares dependencies on other named requests
• @env.<env>.<var> defines per-environment variables
• @timeout sets per-request timeout in milliseconds
• {{var}} interpolates variables; {{secret:key}} resolves secrets
• < { } pre-request script; > { } post-response script
• Scripts have access to request, response, setVar(), assert(), console.log()

CLI

rawrequest run — Execute requests

# Run a named request
rawrequest run api.http -n login

# Use an environment
rawrequest run api.http -n getUsers -e prod

# Set variables
rawrequest run api.http -n createUser -V "username=john" -V "email=john@test.com"

# Output formats: full (default), json, body, quiet
rawrequest run api.http -n getData -o body | jq .

# Skip pre/post scripts
rawrequest run api.http -n getData --no-scripts

# Verbose mode (show request details)
rawrequest run api.http -n login --verbose

rawrequest load — Run load tests

Run load tests against named requests from the command line.

# Basic load test — 10 users for 30 seconds
rawrequest load api.http -n healthCheck

# Custom concurrency and duration
rawrequest load api.http -n healthCheck --users 50 --duration 2m

# Rate limiting with ramp-up
rawrequest load api.http -n healthCheck --rps 200 --ramp-up 10s --users 100

# Abort if failure rate exceeds threshold
rawrequest load api.http -n healthCheck --users 50 --fail-rate 0.05

# Adaptive load control
rawrequest load api.http -n healthCheck --adaptive --users 100

# JSON output for CI pipelines
rawrequest load api.http -n healthCheck -o json

Output includes response time percentiles (P50, P95, P99), throughput, error breakdown, and status code distribution.

rawrequest list — List requests

rawrequest list api.http

rawrequest envs — List environments

rawrequest envs api.http

MCP Server

RawRequest works as an MCP server, letting AI assistants discover and execute your HTTP requests via chat. Uses stdio transport — no ports needed.

Setup

rawrequest mcp [--workspace <dir>] [--env <name>]

Available Tools

Auto-Discovery

When a tool's file parameter is omitted, RawRequest automatically searches the workspace:

• One .http file found → used automatically
• Multiple files found → error prompts to specify a file or use list_files
• No files found → error message

Configuration Examples

Most clients launch MCP servers from your project directory. Since --workspace defaults to . (current directory), you typically don't need it — auto-discovery just works.

Claude Code — project (.mcp.json in project root):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rawrequest": {
      "command": "rawrequest",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code — global (~/.claude.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rawrequest": {
      "command": "rawrequest",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rawrequest": {
      "command": "rawrequest",
      "args": ["mcp", "--workspace", "/absolute/path/to/project"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop does not support variable expansion or cwd — an absolute path is required.

GitHub Copilot — VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "servers": {
    "rawrequest": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "rawrequest",
      "args": ["mcp", "--workspace", "${workspaceFolder}"]
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot — project-wide (.github/copilot-mcp.json):

{
  "servers": {
    "rawrequest": {
      "command": "rawrequest",
      "args": ["mcp", "--workspace", "${workspaceFolder}"]
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot CLI — global (~/.copilot/mcp-config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rawrequest": {
      "command": "rawrequest",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Secrets

The MCP server resolves {{secret:KEY}} placeholders using the same encrypted vault as the desktop app. Set up secrets in the GUI first — they work automatically in MCP and CLI modes.

RawRequest Desktop

The desktop application provides a full GUI for working with .http files:

• Code editor — CodeMirror 6 with syntax highlighting, folding, linting, and variable diagnostics
• Request execution — Visual response viewer with timing breakdown
• Secret vault — Encrypted secret management with usage tracking
• Request history — Browse and re-run past requests
• Collection import — Import from Postman and Bruno
• Request navigation — Outline panel (⌘ Shift O) and command palette (⌘ P)
• Load testing — Visual load test runner with live progress and result charts

Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24+
• Node.js 20+
• Wails CLI

Dev Workflow

cd frontend && npm install && cd ..

# Development mode with hot reload
./scripts/dev-build.sh

# Build only (no dev server)
./scripts/dev-build.sh --build-only

Testing

# Backend
go test ./...

# Frontend
cd frontend && npm test

Building

./scripts/build.sh

Architecture

RawRequest is a single Go binary that operates in multiple modes:

• CLI mode — rawrequest run|load|list|envs executes directly and exits
• MCP mode — rawrequest mcp runs a long-lived stdio server for AI clients
• Desktop mode — the GUI app runs an internal HTTP backend on localhost; the Angular frontend communicates with it

All modes share the same request parsing, execution, scripting, and templating core.

License

PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 — see LICENSE