Installing the command-line executable

Assuming you have Rust/Cargo installed, run this command in a terminal:

cargo install PostDad

It will make the PostDad command available in your PATH if you've allowed the PATH to be modified when installing Rust. cargo uninstall PostDad uninstalls.

Back to the crate overview.

Readme

Postdad 👟

"He's not mad at your slow API, just disappointed."

Postdad is a high-speed, local-first Terminal UI (TUI) for testing APIs. It’s built in Rust 🦀 because Electron apps shouldn't eat 1GB of RAM just to send a GET request.

   ____           _      _           _ 
  |  _ \ ___  ___| |_ __| | __ _  __| |
  | |_) / _ \/ __| __/ _` |/ _` |/ _` |
  |  __/ (_) \__ \ || (_| | (_| | (_| |
  |_|   \___/|___/\__\__,_|\__,_|\__,_|

Why Postdad?

Modern dev tools are bloated. Postman takes 5-10 seconds to launch. Postdad takes <100ms.

Feature	Postman/Insomnia	CURL/HTTPie	Postdad
Speed	🐢 Slow (Electron)	⚡ Fast	🚀 Blazing Fast (Rust)
RAM Usage	500MB+	~5MB	~15MB
Interface	Mouse Clicky	CLI Args	Vim-Style TUI
Storage	Cloud Sync (Forced)	History File	Local .hcl Files

Features

Vim-Motion Navigation: Use j, k, and / to fly through your request history.
Three-Pane Layout: Collections on the left, Request on top, Response at bottom.
JSON Explorer: Interactive tree view for massive JSON responses. Expansion/Collapse nodes with arrow keys.
Dad's Garage: Local-first collection storage. No login required.
Async & Non-Blocking: The UI never freezes, even if the API times out.
Latency Heartbeat: Real-time graph monitoring your API's pulse.
Zen Mode: Press Ctrl+z to focus purely on the response data.

Installation

cargo install Postdad

Update

cargo install --force Postdad

Usage

Postdad

Ctrl+z: Toggle Zen Mode (Focus)
Ctrl+w: Toggle WebSocket Mode
f: Toggle Fullscreen Response
Enter: Send Request (or Sync Param Edit)
e: Edit URL (Press Tab to cycle method)
Tab: Switch Request Tabs (Params, Headers, Body, Auth)
c: Copy as cURL command
G (Shift+g): Copy as Python (requests) code
J (Shift+j): Copy as JavaScript (fetch) code
Ctrl+t: Cycle Themes (Default, Matrix, Cyberpunk, Dracula)
q: Quit (Dad needs a nap)

Tab Context Actions

Params Tab:
- a: Add Param | d: Delete Param | e: Edit Key/Value
Auth Tab:
- t: Switch Type (None/Bearer/Basic/OAuth2) | u: Edit User | p: Edit Password
- OAuth 2.0: Enter to Start Flow | i/1/2 to Edit Config
Chain Tab:
- a: Add Rule | d: Delete Rule | e: Edit Key/Path
Body Tab:
- m: Switch Type (Raw/Multipart/GraphQL)
- Multipart: a Add | Space Toggle File | d Delete
- GraphQL: Q (Shift+q) Edit Query | V (Shift+v) Edit Variables

Roadmap to Recognition

Basic TUI Engine
Async Request Worker
JSON Response Explorer (Interactive)
Collection Management (.hcl support)
"Dad's Directions" (Copy as Curl) (c key)
Response Timing (ms precision)
Request Chaining (Variable Extraction from JSON Response using full JSONPath support via jsonpath_lib)
Latency Heartbeat (Real-time graph)
Zen Mode (Focus on Response)
Search / Filter JSON (/ key)
Fullscreen Response View (f key)
Interactive Query Params (Table Editor)
Extended Auth (Basic, Bearer, OAuth 2.0 with Browser Flow)
Time-Travel History (Restore full response state)
Environment Variables
Request Body Editor (b key -> $EDITOR)
- Pro Tip: For VS Code integration, run export EDITOR="code --wait" (Mac/Linux) or set $env:EDITOR="code --wait" (PowerShell).
Method Cycling (m key)
Multipart Form Data Support (Form Data & File Uploads via Space)
GraphQL Support (Query & Variables editing)
Status Codes (Color-coded)
Help Screen (? key)
Header Editing (H key -> $EDITOR as JSON)
Persistence (s key -> saved.hcl)
Persistence for Chain Rules & Multipart Data
Refactor Collection Saving Logic
Cookie Jar 🍪: Automatically stores and sends Set-Cookie headers for stateful sessions
Code Generators 💻: Generate request code for Python (Requests) and JavaScript (Fetch) with G and J keys
WebSocket Support 🔌: Full WS/WSS client with Ctrl+W to toggle mode, real-time messaging, and connection management
Pre-Request Scripts 📜: Rhai scripting engine for running hooks before requests (P to edit)
Collection Runner 🏃: Run all requests in a collection sequentially with status code assertions (Ctrl+R)
Dynamic Themes 🎨: Cycle between Matrix, Cyberpunk, Dracula, and Default themes (Ctrl+T)
Splash Screen ⚡: Awesome retro-terminal startup screen

WebSocket Mode (`Ctrl+W` to enter)

e: Edit WebSocket URL
Enter: Connect / Disconnect
i: Start typing a message
Enter (while typing): Send message
j/k: Scroll through message history
x: Clear message history
?: WebSocket Help

Collection Runner (`Ctrl+R` to enter)

Run all requests in a collection sequentially and see pass/fail results.

j/k: Navigate collections (before run) or scroll results (after run)
Enter: Run selected collection
x: Clear results
Esc: Exit runner mode
?: Help

Status Code Assertions: By default, expects HTTP 200. Add expected_status = XXX in your .hcl file to specify a different expected status:

request "Create User" {
  method = "POST"
  url = "https://api.example.com/users"
  expected_status = 201
}

Pre-Request Scripts (`P` to edit)

Press P to open your $EDITOR and write Rhai scripts that run before each request.

Available Functions:

Function	Description
`set_header(name, value)`	Add or modify a request header
`get_header(name)`	Get current header value
`set_var(name, value)`	Set an environment variable
`get_var(name)`	Get an environment variable
`set_body(body)`	Override the request body
`set_url(url)`	Override the request URL
`timestamp()`	Get Unix timestamp (seconds)
`timestamp_ms()`	Get Unix timestamp (milliseconds)
`uuid()`	Generate a random UUID v4
`base64_encode(text)`	Encode text as Base64
`base64_decode(text)`	Decode Base64 text
`print(msg)`	Debug log (shows in output)

Constants: METHOD, URL, BODY

Example Script:

// Add timestamp header to every request
let ts = timestamp();
set_header("X-Request-Time", ts.to_string());

// Add request ID
let id = uuid();
set_header("X-Request-ID", id);

Leveling Up to Postman (Future Ideas)

To truly rival Postman, we still need:

Import/Export 📦: Import Postman Collections (.json) and OpenAPI/Swagger specs
Test Scripts 🧪: Post-request assertions (like Postman's pm.test())
More Code Generators 💻: Add support for Go, Rust, Ruby, PHP, and C#
Proxy Support 🔒: HTTP/SOCKS proxy configuration for corporate environments
Request Tabs 📑: Work on multiple requests simultaneously
Response History 📜: View previous responses for a request
Binary Response Handling 📁: Download files, preview images
SSL Certificate Config 🔐: Custom CA certs, client certificates
Request Timeout Settings ⏱️: Per-request timeout configuration
Syntax Highlighting 🎨: In-app JSON/code highlighting
Mock Servers 🎭: Create mock endpoints for testing
gRPC Support �: Protocol buffers and gRPC streaming
GraphQL Introspection 🔍: Auto-complete from schema
Request Diff 🔀: Compare two responses side by side
API Documentation Gen 📝: Generate docs from collections

License

MIT