rest-client.vim

A vim port of the VSCode Rest Client.

With a simple *.http or *.rest file in your project you can trigger API requests and view the responses directly in vim.

Installation

Use your favorite plugin manager to install.

" vim-plug
Plug 'jecxjo/rest-client.vim'

Or install it manually:

Vim 8:

mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/jecxjo/start
cd ~/.vim/pack/jecxjo/start
git clone https://github.com/jecxjo/rest-client.vim.git
vim -u NONE -c "helptags rest-client.vim/doc" -c q

Neovim:

mkdir -p ~/.config/nvim/pack/jecxjo/start
cd ~/.config/nvim/pack/jecxjo/start
git clone https://github.com/jecxjo/rest-client.vim.git
nvim -u NONE -c "helptags rest-client.vim/doc" -c q

Only dependencies are curl and jq.

Current Features (compared to VSCode client)

Usage

Create a simple text file containing your API requests.

# My API

###
# Hello World API
GET http://localhost:3000/hello?name=World

###
# Create User
POST http://localhost:3000/new-user
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "Alice",
  "age": 30
}

Move your cursor to an API (between the ### lines) and run :RestClient. If the output is JSON and you want it cleaned run :RestClientJSON.

You can also rerun the last API call made with :RestClientReRun.

Local and Environment Variables

The plugin supports variables via the environment file http-client.env.json. The format is as follows:

{
  "local": {
    "host": "http://localhost:3000"
  },
  "test": {
    "host": "https://uat.example.com"
  }
  "prod": {
    "host": "https://example.com"
  }
}

In the API file you can reference the variables wrapping them in double curly braces.

###
# Hello World
GET {{host}}/hello?name=World

To pick the environment to use run :RestClient <env> or RestClientJSON <env>. To see what environments are available and what variables exist run :RestClientEnv.

To use local variables start a line with @ in or above the API block.

###
@host = http://localhost:3000
GET {{host}}/api

API File format

The format is simple. Each API is between ### or the end of file. Each API has the format:

METHOD URL
[<Header Name: Header Value>]

[<Body>]

Multiple headers can be added, one to each line.

The body for POST and PUT start after the first empty line after method/url and headers. If a file is being send the body should be < filename

###
# Upload File
POST {{host}}/Upload

< ./data.txt

Highlighting

There is also a syntax file for the API files. To enable add the following to your RC file:

au BufRead,BufNewFile *.http,*.rest set filetype=http

Acknowledgements

This plugin is inspirred by the VSCode Rest Client

License

BSD-3, see LICENSE