Hurl
A command line tool to run and test HTTP requests using a simple plain text format.
What is Hurl?
Hurl is a command line tool that runs and tests HTTP requests using a simple plain text file format. It allows users to chain requests, capture values from responses, and perform assertions on headers and body content, making it suitable for both data fetching and comprehensive HTTP session testing.
Developers, DevOps engineers, and QA testers who need to automate HTTP requests, test APIs (REST, SOAP, GraphQL), or integrate HTTP testing into CI/CD pipelines.
Hurl offers a fast, lightweight, and versatile alternative to complex testing frameworks by combining the power of curl with an intuitive plain text format, enabling easy scripting, testing, and integration without runtime dependencies.
Overview
Hurl, run and test HTTP requests with plain text.
Use Cases
Best For
- Automating and testing REST API endpoints with JSON assertions
- Chaining HTTP requests and capturing values for multi-step workflows
- Testing HTML content and web pages with XPath queries
- Integrating HTTP performance and functional tests into CI/CD pipelines
- Working with SOAP and GraphQL APIs in a plain text format
- Debugging and inspecting HTTP sessions with detailed reports
Not Ideal For
- Teams that prefer GUI-based tools for interactive API exploration and debugging
- Projects requiring complex conditional logic, loops, or state management beyond simple request chaining
- Applications needing built-in support for non-HTTP protocols like WebSocket or gRPC
- Organizations seeking cloud-synced test suites with real-time collaboration features
Pros & Cons
Pros
Uses a simple plain text format that is easy to read, write, and version control, as demonstrated in the README with clear examples for REST, GraphQL, and SOAP APIs.
Supports extensive testing with JSONPath, XPath, and other queries for status codes, headers, body content, performance, and SSL certificates, enabling detailed validation.
Generates multiple report formats like JUnit, TAP, and HTML, making it straightforward to integrate into continuous integration pipelines, as highlighted in the README's reporting section.
Written in Rust as a single binary with no runtime dependencies and powered by libcurl, ensuring high performance and reliability for HTTP requests.
Cons
Only handles HTTP/HTTPS requests, lacking built-in capabilities for WebSocket, gRPC, or other real-time protocols, which restricts its use in broader networking scenarios.
The text-based format can become lengthy and cumbersome for highly complex API sequences with many conditional steps or data manipulations, compared to code-based frameworks.
Requires command-line usage, which may be less intuitive for users accustomed to visual tools like Postman, especially for interactive debugging or ad-hoc testing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
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