Show HN: HTTP/WebSocket/GraphQL/gRPC desktop client without the need of login

Show HN: HTTP/WebSocket/GraphQL/gRPC desktop client without the need of login(github.com)

5 points by sunny41 2 years ago | 7 comments

sunny41 2 years ago |

This is an alternative to tools like Insomnia REST or Postman. No account is needed to use this software. No data is shared. No installation is needed. Hopefully its features would be more suitable to users and have fewer usability bugs.

Users can also learn how application protocols operate on HTTP wires through this software.

Images and videos describing this software are available in the project website: https://sunny-chung.github.io/hello-http/

I created this project because my favourite HTTP client softwares all go to cloud and requiring an account to use, also the major bugs were not addressed, e.g. a request collection is deleted unexpectedly by opening a drop down menu.

Please let me know if there is anything missing. This is my first opensource application project.

solardev 2 years ago |

Have you heard of Bruno, a similar open source project also with no cloud accounts? https://github.com/usebruno/bruno

How is yours different? Was there something in Bruno you didn't like?

sunny41 2 years ago | |

Thanks for the good question. I have tried Bruno. Comparing with mine, it does not support GraphQL subscriptions, WebSocket and gRPC at the moment, which are needed in my daily work. It also does not log the connection detail, which is very useful in infrastructure troubleshooting. It does not persist responses as well, which I would sometimes need that. My application addresses these demands.

Bruno is Postman-like. It only saves when user clicks "Save" explicitly, which I would always forget and causing data loss. Personally I like Insomnia's style more. It saves modification immediately, which is adopted in my application.

My application also features multiple request templates per API, which I could not find an equivalent in existing HTTP client softwares.

Bruno did have something shining which mine does not address yet -- it allows collaboration over git.

Please correct if I am wrong.

solardev 2 years ago | | |

Great response, thank you! I think some of those features are pretty valuable (like the other protocols, and the connection logging).

Bruno does allow git collaboration, but all that really means is that its internal markup language (bru, https://www.usebruno.com/bru) is human-readable (and thus diff-able). If your internal save files are similar, they could also be synced in git.