httpie

HTTPie CLI Skill

HTTPie is a modern, human-friendly HTTP client for the command line. The main command is http (or https for HTTPS-only).

Installation

# pip (recommended)
pip install httpie

# brew (macOS)
brew install httpie

# apt (Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt install httpie

Verify: http --version

Request Syntax

http [METHOD] URL [REQUEST_ITEMS...]

• METHOD is optional: defaults to GET when no data, POST when data is present
• URL: scheme defaults to http://; use :3000 as shorthand for localhost:3000

Request Items � Key Separators

| Separator | Type | Example | | --------- | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | = | JSON string field (or form field with -f) | name=Jean | | := | Raw JSON value (non-string) | active:=true, count:=42, tags:='["a","b"]' | | == | URL query parameter | search==httpie | | : | HTTP header | Authorization:Bearer TOKEN | | @ | File upload (form/multipart) | file@./report.pdf | | =@ | File content as string field | body=@./message.txt | | :=@ | File content as raw JSON | config:=@./config.json |

Common Examples

GET requests

# Simple GET
http GET https://api.example.com/users

# With query params
http GET https://api.example.com/users search==alice limit==10

# Shorthand (method inferred)
http https://api.example.com/users

# Localhost shorthand
http :8080/health

POST with JSON (default)

# String and non-string fields
http POST https://api.example.com/users \
  name="Jean-Jacques" \
  email="jj@example.com" \
  active:=true \
  roles:='["admin","user"]'

# Inline raw JSON body (pipe it in)
echo '{"name":"test"}' | http POST https://api.example.com/users

PUT / PATCH / DELETE

http PUT https://api.example.com/users/42 name="Updated"
http PATCH https://api.example.com/users/42 email="new@example.com"
http DELETE https://api.example.com/users/42

Form data (-f)

http -f POST https://api.example.com/login username=admin password=secret

File upload (multipart)

http -f POST https://api.example.com/upload file@./document.pdf title="My Doc"

Authentication

# Basic auth
http -a username:password https://api.example.com/secure

# Bearer token
http -A bearer -a TOKEN https://api.example.com/secure

# Prompt for password (don't expose it in shell history)
http -a username https://api.example.com/secure

Headers

# Custom headers
http GET https://api.example.com/data \
  Accept:application/json \
  X-Request-Id:abc-123 \
  Authorization:"Bearer $(cat token.txt)"

Output Control

# Show full exchange (request + response)
http -v GET https://api.example.com/users

# Only response headers
http -h GET https://api.example.com/users

# Only response body
http -b GET https://api.example.com/users

# Show request headers + response body
http --print=Hb GET https://api.example.com/users
# Flags: H=request headers, B=request body, h=response headers, b=response body, m=metadata

# No color / formatting (useful in scripts)
http --pretty=none GET https://api.example.com/users

# Check HTTP status (exit non-zero on 4xx/5xx)
http --check-status GET https://api.example.com/users

Download Files

# Download and auto-name
http --download https://example.com/file.zip

# Download to specific path
http --download -o /tmp/output.zip https://example.com/file.zip

# Resume interrupted download
http --download --continue -o /tmp/output.zip https://example.com/file.zip

Sessions (Persist cookies & auth)

# Create/use named session (stored in ~/.config/httpie/sessions/)
http --session=myapi POST https://api.example.com/login username=admin password=secret
http --session=myapi GET https://api.example.com/profile

# Read-only session (don't update it)
http --session-read-only=myapi GET https://api.example.com/data

Useful Flags

--offline          # Build and print request without sending it (dry-run)
--follow           # Follow redirects
--timeout=10       # Set timeout in seconds (default: 0 = no timeout)
--proxy=http:http://proxy:8080  # Use a proxy
--verify=no        # Skip SSL certificate verification (�� dev only)
--cert=./cert.pem  # Client TLS certificate
--stream           # Stream response body (useful for SSE / long-polling)
--quiet            # Suppress output except errors

Scripting Patterns

Avoid stdin conflicts in scripts

When running HTTPie in a script or CI pipeline where stdin may not be a TTY, add --ignore-stdin to avoid the "body from stdin and key=value cannot be mixed" error:

http --ignore-stdin POST https://api.example.com/users name=test active:=true

Use in shell pipelines

# Extract a field with jq
TOKEN=$(http POST https://api.example.com/auth username=admin password=secret \
  --pretty=none -b | jq -r '.token')

# Pass token to next call
http GET https://api.example.com/profile "Authorization:Bearer $TOKEN"

Exit codes with --check-status

if http --check-status --quiet GET https://api.example.com/health; then
  echo "API is up"
else
  echo "API returned error"
fi

Offline dry-run (inspect before sending)

http --offline POST https://api.example.com/users name=test active:=true

HTTPie vs curl Equivalents

| Goal | HTTPie | curl | | ------------ | ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | GET request | http GET url | curl url | | POST JSON | http POST url key=val | curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"key":"val"}' url | | Bearer auth | http -A bearer -a TOKEN url | curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer TOKEN' url | | Show headers | http -h url | curl -I url | | Verbose | http -v url | curl -v url |

Configuration

HTTPie config lives at ~/.config/httpie/config.json:

{
  "default_options": ["--style=monokai", "--pretty=all", "--check-status"]
}

Tips

• Always quote values with spaces: description='hello world'
• Escape colons in field names: field\:name=value
• GCP/cloud APIs: use http -A bearer -a "$(gcloud auth print-access-token)" ...
• Pipe JSON input: cat payload.json | http POST https://api.example.com/endpoint
• Debug CI pipelines: use --offline to validate request shape without actually calling the API
• Combine with jq for powerful JSON manipulation in scripts