Goodbye Postman?👋 CLI Tools That Will Change Your API Testing Forever

You know how we developers spend a lot of time working with APIs, right? While tools like Postman are great, sometimes they can feel a bit heavy-handed - you have to launch the app, navigate through the UI, and deal with occasional crashes or sync issues. Not to mention those times when you’re SSH’d into a server and need to quickly test an endpoint!

This is where command-line tools like curl(short for “Client URL”) and jq come in as your trusty sidekicks! 🦸‍♂️ Think of curl as your Swiss Army knife for making HTTP requests - it’s always there in your terminal, ready to help. And jq ? It’s like having a magic wand ✨ that turns messy JSON responses into beautifully formatted, readable data that you can actually work with.

Let me break down why these command-line tools are so valuable:

1. Speed and Efficiency ⚡

• No need to switch contexts or launch apps
• Lightning-fast execution 🏃‍♀️
• Perfect for quick API checks during development

2. Automation-Friendly 🤖

• Easily integrate into shell scripts
• Perfect for CI/CD pipelines 🔄
• Great for automated testing ✅

Now, about Postman… While it’s an amazing tool, it does have some pain points: 🤔

• Takes up significant system resources 🐌
• Can be sluggish to start up
• Sync issues between devices can be frustrating 😫
• Not always available when you need it (like on production servers) 🚫
• Collections can get messy and outdated if not maintained well 🗑️

We’ll walk through practical examples using a Fake Store API & dummyjson , demonstrating the power and flexibility of these tools for effective API testing.

Curl + jq 🔧

Get Request

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curl 'https://dummyjson.com/quotes?limit=2&skip=2' | jq

Output:

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{ "quotes": [ { "id": 3, "quote": "Thinking is the capital, Enterprise is the way, Hard Work is the solution.", "author": "Abdul Kalam" }, { "id": 4, "quote": "If You Can'T Make It Good, At Least Make It Look Good.", "author": "Bill Gates" } ], "total": 1454, "skip": 2, "limit": 2 }

Get verbose output with Additional Details

• -sS → Combines -s (silent) and -S (show errors) flags, hiding the progress but showing errors if they occur.
• -X → Specifies the GET method.
• -v → Display Verbose Output.

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curl -sS -X GET -v 'https://dummyjson.com/quotes?limit=2&skip=2' | jq

Output:

POST Request

• -H → sets the content-type
• -d → sends the JSON payload

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curl -sS-X POST https://fakestoreapi.com/products \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
    "title": "Raspberry Pi 4",
    "price": 13.5,
    "description": "lorem ipsum",
    "image": "https://i.pravatar.cc",
    "category": "electronic"
}' | jq

Output:

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{ "id": 21, "title": "Raspberry Pi 4", "price": 13.5, "description": "lorem ipsum", "image": "https://i.pravatar.cc", "category": "electronic" }

PUT & PATCH Requests

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curl -sS -X PUT https://fakestoreapi.com/products/21 \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
    "title": "Raspberry Pi 5",
    "price": 11.1,
    "description": "Raspberry Pi 4 ....",
    "image": "https://i.pravatar.cc",
    "category": "electronic"
}' | jq

Output:

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{
  "id": 21,
  "title": "Raspberry Pi 5",
  "price": 11.1,
  "description": "Raspberry Pi 4 ...",
  "image": "https://i.pravatar.cc",
  "category": "electronic"
}

Use with JSON file

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curl -X PATCH https://fakestoreapi.com/products/21 \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d @data.json

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// data.json
{ 
	"title": "test product", 
	"price": 13.5, 
	"description": "lorem ipsum set", 
	"image": "https://i.pravatar.cc", 
	"category": "electronic" 
}

Authentication

Get Token

• --cookie-jar cookies.txt: Saves cookies (e.g., access tokens) to cookies.txt after the request.

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curl -sS -X POST https://dummyjson.com/auth/login \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
--cookie-jar cookies.txt \
-d '{
    "username": "emilys",
    "password": "emilyspass",
    "expiresInMins": 30
}' | jq

Output:

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{ "accessToken": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6MSwidXNlcm5hbWUiOiJlbWlseXMiLCJlbWFpbCI6ImVtaWx5LmpvaG5zb25AeC5kdW1teWpzb24uY29tIiwiZmlyc3ROYW1lIjoiRW1pbHkiLCJsYXN0TmFtZSI6IkpvaG5zb24iLCJnZW5kZXIiOiJmZW1hbGUiLCJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZHVtbXlqc29uLmNvbS9pY29uL2VtaWx5cy8xMjgiLCJpYXQiOjE3MzEwOTM0MTIsImV4cCI6MTczMTA5NTIxMn0.LpHYf8Zc7EvVzOkSPkvtQncpdWgIKq7-r9lg6_tszzg", "refreshToken": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6MSwidXNlcm5hbWUiOiJlbWlseXMiLCJlbWFpbCI6ImVtaWx5LmpvaG5zb25AeC5kdW1teWpzb24uY29tIiwiZmlyc3ROYW1lIjoiRW1pbHkiLCJsYXN0TmFtZSI6IkpvaG5zb24iLCJnZW5kZXIiOiJmZW1hbGUiLCJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZHVtbXlqc29uLmNvbS9pY29uL2VtaWx5cy8xMjgiLCJpYXQiOjE3MzEwOTM0MTIsImV4cCI6MTczMzY4NTQxMn0.onheFA-QlZwgMbhfoxG4zoFBFBOqGeH9j9jmU89cmRY", "id": 1, "username": "emilys", "email": "emily.johnson@x.dummyjson.com", "firstName": "Emily", "lastName": "Johnson", "gender": "female", "image": "https://dummyjson.com/icon/emilys/128"

Refresh Token

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curl -sS -X POST https://dummyjson.com/auth/refresh \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
--cookie cookies.txt \
-d '{
    "refreshToken": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6MSwidXNlcm5hbWUiOiJlbWlseXMiLCJlbWFpbCI6ImVtaWx5LmpvaG5zb25AeC5kdW1teWpzb24uY29tIiwiZmlyc3ROYW1lIjoiRW1pbHkiLCJsYXN0TmFtZSI6IkpvaG5zb24iLCJnZW5kZXIiOiJmZW1hbGUiLCJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZHVtbXlqc29uLmNvbS9pY29uL2VtaWx5cy8xMjgiLCJpYXQiOjE3MzEwOTMzMTgsImV4cCI6MTczMzY4NTMxOH0.rCS4sa4AjKA1buLAqNeOBL7aFBj3Z5ZQPO3ZZIUpLp4",
    "expiresInMins": 30
}' | jq

Or

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curl -sS -X POST https://dummyjson.com/auth/refresh \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
--cookie cookies.txt \
-d '{
    "expiresInMins": 30
}' | jq

Output:

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{ "accessToken": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...", // new accessToken (returned in both response and cookies) "refreshToken": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..." // new refreshToken (returned in both response and cookies) }

Modern HTTP Clients

xh - The Modern HTTP Swiss Army Knife 🚀

🔗 https://github.com/ducaale/xh

What makes xh special? ✨

• 🎯 Developer-Friendly Syntax

  • No more wrestling with complex flags
  • Commands read like plain English
  • Color-coded output that’s easy on the eyes 👀

• ⚡ Blazingly Fast

  • Built in Rust for maximum performance

• 🎪 Features

  • JSON highlighting right out of the box
  • Built-in authentication helpers
  • HTTPS, custom headers

Here’s a quick taste of how friendly it is:

Let’s Post a New Product! 🛍️

Using curl (The Classic Way) 🔧

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curl -sS -X POST https://fakestoreapi.com/products \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
    "title": "Raspberry Pi 4",
    "price": 13.5,
    "description": "lorem ipsum",
    "image": "https://i.pravatar.cc",
    "category": "electronic"
}' | jq

Using xh (The Modern Way) ✨

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xh POST https://fakestoreapi.com/products \
    title="Raspberry Pi 4" \
    price:=13.5 \
    description="lorem ipsum" \
    image="https://i.pravatar.cc" \
    category="electronic"

What’s Different? 👀

1. Syntax Simplicity 🎯

   • curl: Needs -X POST, -H for headers, -d for data
   • xh: Just POST and your data - that’s it!

2. JSON Handling 📦

   • curl: Requires manual JSON formatting and | jq for pretty output
   • xh: Automatically formats JSON and handles content types

3. Type Inference 🧠

   • curl: Everything is a string in JSON
   • xh: Smart type handling (notice := for numbers)

4. Headers 📝

   • curl: Must explicitly set Content-Type
   • xh: Automatically handles common headers

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xh --print=HB POST https://fakestoreapi.com/products \
    title="Raspberry Pi 4"

HTTPie

Started as a command-line marvel, it’s now evolved into a full-featured suite.

🔗 https://httpie.io/cli

Example

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http POST https://fakestoreapi.com/products \
    title="Raspberry Pi 4" \
    price:=13.5 \
    description="lorem ipsum" \
    image="https://i.pravatar.cc" \
    category="electronic"

Feature Comparison 📊