Documentation

What Rusty Requester Is Good At

Install and Update

Rusty Requester ships as a native macOS app and Linux binary. No account, cloud login, or external runtime is required.

One-line install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chud-lori/rusty-requester/main/install.sh | bash

Install a specific version

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chud-lori/rusty-requester/main/install.sh | VERSION=v0.24.0 bash

Update checks

The app reads the public latest.json metadata file first, then falls back to GitHub Releases only if needed. This keeps normal update checks out of GitHub's unauthenticated REST API quota.

Uninstall

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chud-lori/rusty-requester/main/install.sh | UNINSTALL=1 bash

Add PURGE=1 to remove saved workspace data as well.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/chud-lori/rusty-requester
cd rusty-requester
cargo run
cargo test
cargo build --release

First Request

Workspace Model

The app is local-first. Your collections, history, environments, cookies, OAuth state, runner presets, and open tabs are stored on your machine.

Request Builder

The editor is split into method/URL controls and six request tabs.

Body Modes

Authentication

Environments

Environments let one request work across local, staging, production, customer tenants, or temporary test stacks.

Variable substitution

Define variables in the environment manager, then reference them as {{name}} in URLs, params, headers, cookies, bodies, and auth fields.

URL:     https://{{base_url}}/v1/users/{{user_id}}
Header: Authorization: Bearer {{token}}

Cookie jar

Cookies are scoped per environment. Set-Cookie responses are persisted and replayed for matching domains and paths, similar to browser behavior.

Environment Compare

Use compare when staging works but production does not, or when onboarding a new environment.

• Pick a source and target environment.
• Review added, missing, changed, and unchanged keys.
• Copy a masked summary for teammates.
• Add missing source keys to the target when needed.

Responses

The response panel focuses on inspection and debugging without running response HTML as code.

Timing and size

Response metadata includes status, elapsed time, and size. Timing breakdowns help separate preparation, waiting, and download time.

Cancel

While a request is running, Send becomes Cancel. Cancelling aborts the task and connection.

Collections

Collections and folders are the main organization model. Use them for services, domains, project areas, environments, or test suites.

Good collection structure

My API
  Auth
    Login
    Refresh token
  Users
    List users
    Create user
  Billing
    Create checkout session
    Fetch invoice

Collection Runner

The runner turns saved requests into repeatable workflows.

CSV data example

username,password,tenant
alice,secret,staging-a
bob,secret2,staging-b

JSON data example

[
  { "username": "alice", "tenant": "staging-a" },
  { "username": "bob", "tenant": "staging-b" }
]

Presets

Save runner presets for smoke tests, QA checks, release verification, or customer-specific flows. Presets remember scope, environment selection, and visible data rows.

Assertions and extractors

Assertions from the Tests tab run during Collection Runner. Extractors can pull response values into runner-scoped state so login, fetch, mutate, and verify flows can chain together.

cURL and Code Snippets

Paste cURL

Paste a cURL command into the import dialog to create a request with method, URL, params, headers, cookies, body, and auth.

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/users \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer token" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"team@example.com"}'

Generate snippets

Click </> Code near Send to generate cURL, Python requests, JavaScript fetch, or HTTPie snippets.

OpenAPI and Postman Import

Use imports to bootstrap collections from existing API definitions.

OpenAPI refresh

Generated OpenAPI metadata lets the app refresh imported requests from an updated spec while preserving user-edited names, auth values, tests, and extractors where possible. For collection-scoped refresh, open a collection's Collection settings..., choose a local OpenAPI JSON/YAML file, then click Refresh collection from OpenAPI.

Collection Git Sync

Each top-level collection can be linked to its own local folder or Git repository. Open the collection menu, choose Collection settings..., then select a directory. Rusty Requester enables file-backed sync by default: normal app saves rewrite workspace.json, requests/, and environments/, so Git status reflects the current collection without a separate export step. Turn off file-backed sync if you only want manual snapshots, then use Export now. Use a repository root containing .git when you want Refresh changes, Pull from remote, or Commit and push. Private GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket repos work through your local SSH key or Git credential helper; Rusty Requester does not sign in to Git providers or store Git provider tokens.

workspace.json
requests/
  001-my-api-collection-id/
    001-login-request-id.rr
    001-users-folder-id/
      001-list-users-request-id.rr
environments/
  001-local-env-local.rrenv

• One readable native block-style .rr file per request.
• One readable .rrenv file per environment.
• Stable IDs for round trips.
• Deterministic ordering for cleaner diffs.
• Secret masking by default for safer commits.
• Collection-level mask/allow key patterns for shared headers and env keys.
• Free Git UI: status/diff summary, pull, manual export, commit, and push.
• Collection settings can rename the collection and store an OpenAPI spec path for refresh.

The older Workspace Sync... modal is still available for whole-workspace import/export, but collection settings are the recommended path for team Git review.

Full format reference: GIT_WORKSPACE_FORMAT.md.

Safe Sharing

Rusty Requester assumes API clients routinely hold credentials, so sharing workflows default toward redaction.

Backups

Backups protect local work before risky changes such as imports or restore operations.

• Create manual snapshots before large imports or cleanup.
• Automatic snapshots are created before mutating import flows.
• Restoring a backup first saves the current state, so rollback is reversible.
• Backup restore validates workspace JSON and only accepts files from the app backup directory.

Shortcuts

Settings

Troubleshooting

macOS says the app cannot be opened

The app is not notarized. The installer removes quarantine automatically. For manual installs, right-click the app, choose Open, and confirm once.

Variables are not replaced

Check that an environment is selected, the variable name matches exactly, and the value is enabled in the environment manager.

Cookies are missing

Cookies are scoped by environment, domain, path, and expiry. Confirm the active environment and request host/path match the cookie rules.

Runner data is not applied

CSV uses the first row as headers. JSON must be one object or an array of objects. Data row keys become runner-scoped variables.

A secret scan warning appears on example data

The scanner is intentionally conservative. Placeholder values can look token-like. If you know the values are safe, you can continue or export a redacted copy.

Large response feels slow

Lower the max response body setting, use Raw view for exact text, and avoid previewing very large HTML/JSON documents unless needed.

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