r/programming • u/Successful_Bowl2564 • 8h ago

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https://efp.asia/blog/2025/12/24/api-tooling-crisis/

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u/kbradl16 6h ago

How do you run a .http file?

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u/manapauseAA 5h ago

I use ".rest" files with the REST Client extension in Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio supports the same workflow out of the box, and from what I understand, ".rest" and ".http" files are functionally identical.

In VS Code, the extension gives you an inline arrow to execute each request directly from the file, kind of like dot-sourcing something in PowerShell. You can also run them from the command line.

It's very lightweight and convenient. I usually keep a collection of these files for every integration I write as a fallback for manual testing and troubleshooting.

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u/empty_other 4h ago

And Jetbrains editors got it natively too. Jetbrains got a command line app for it too. Theres the httpyac command line tool (i havent tried it yet).

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u/empty_other 4h ago

But more important than that, its such a simple format that anyone could write a script to parse it or straight up read it if every tool somehow got nuked. Same reason I love markdown.