HTTPie CLI — Complete Reference

"curl for humans" — expressive syntax, colorized output, built-in JSON support.

Installation

# Universal
pip install httpie

# macOS
brew install httpie

# Windows
choco install httpie

# Upgrade
pip install --upgrade httpie

Core Syntax

http [flags] [METHOD] URL [ITEM...]
https [flags] [METHOD] URL [ITEM...]  # forces HTTPS

Method defaults: GET if no body, POST if body present.

Request Items — Key Operators

Common Examples

# Simple GET
http httpie.io/hello
https api.github.com/repos/httpie/cli

# POST JSON (auto Content-Type: application/json)
http POST api.example.com name=John age:=29 married:=false

# Nested JSON
http POST api.example.com platform[name]=HTTPie platform[stars]:=54000

# PUT with header + data
http PUT pie.dev/put X-API-Token:123 name=John

# Query params
http https://api.github.com/search/repositories q==httpie per_page==1

# Localhost shortcut
http :3000/api          # → http://localhost:3000/api
http :/health           # → http://localhost/health

Authentication

# Basic auth
http -a username:password api.example.com

# Digest auth
http -A digest -a user:pass api.example.com

# Bearer token
http -A bearer -a mytoken api.example.com

# GitHub API example
http -a USERNAME POST https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/issues/1/comments body='text'

Forms & File Uploads

# URL-encoded form
http --form POST api.example.com name='John Smith' [email protected]

# Multipart file upload
http -f POST api.example.com name='John' cv@~/resume.pdf photo@~/pic.jpg

Output Control

http -h api.example.com          # headers only
http -b api.example.com          # body only
http -v api.example.com          # full verbose (request + response)
http -m api.example.com          # metadata + timing
http -q api.example.com          # quiet (no output)
http -p Hh api.example.com       # custom: request headers + response headers
http --offline POST api.example.com data=test  # build request without sending

Downloads

http --download https://example.com/file.zip
http -d https://example.com/file.zip -o myfile.zip   # custom filename
http -dc https://example.com/file.zip                # resume interrupted download

Sessions (Persist Cookies + Auth)

# Named session (saved to ~/.config/httpie/sessions/)
http --session=myapp -a user:pass api.example.com/login
http --session=myapp api.example.com/profile   # reuses cookies + auth

# Anonymous session (one-off)
http --session=/tmp/session.json api.example.com

Raw Body & Stdin

# From stdin
echo '{"key":"value"}' | http POST api.example.com
cat data.json | http PUT api.example.com

# From file (auto Content-Type detection)
http PUT api.example.com @data.xml

# Raw flag
http --raw '{"data":"test"}' POST api.example.com

HTTPS / SSL

http --verify=no https://example.org              # skip SSL verification
http --verify=/path/to/ca-bundle.pem https://...  # custom CA
http --cert=client.pem --cert-key=key.pem https://...  # client cert
http --ssl=tls1.2 https://example.org             # force TLS version

Proxies

http --proxy=http:http://10.10.1.10:3128 example.org
http --proxy=https:socks5://user:pass@host:port example.org

# Or via env vars:
export HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy:8080
export HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy:8080
export NO_PROXY=localhost,127.0.0.1

Redirects

http --follow pie.dev/redirect/3              # follow redirects
http --follow --all pie.dev/redirect/3        # show all intermediate responses
http --max-redirects=5 pie.dev/redirect/10

Streaming & Chunked

http --stream pie.dev/stream/100              # stream response
http --chunked POST api.example.com @large.xml  # chunked upload
http --compress POST api.example.com @data.xml  # deflate compression

Scripting Best Practices

# Non-interactive script — always use these flags:
http --check-status --ignore-stdin --timeout=2.5 HEAD pie.dev/get

# Exit codes:
# 2 = connection timeout
# 3 = 3xx not followed
# 4 = 4xx client error
# 5 = 5xx server error

Plugins

httpie cli plugins install httpie-aws-auth
httpie cli plugins install httpie-oauth
httpie cli plugins install httpie-jwt-auth
httpie cli plugins list
httpie cli plugins upgrade httpie-aws-auth
httpie cli plugins uninstall httpie-aws-auth
httpie cli check-updates

Config File

~/.config/httpie/config.json (Linux/macOS) %APPDATA%\httpie\config.json (Windows)

{
  "default_options": ["--style=fruity", "--verify=no"],
  "plugins_dir": "~/.config/httpie/plugins"
}

Unset any option per-request: --no-OPTION (e.g. --no-verify, --no-style)

Quick Cheat Sheet

# Test if API is alive
http HEAD api.example.com

# GET with auth + query params
http -a user:pass api.example.com/data page==1 limit==20

# POST JSON with nested object
http POST api.example.com user[name]=John user[age]:=30 tags:='["vip","new"]'

# Upload + form field
http -f POST api.example.com title="My Doc" [email protected]

# Full verbose debug
http -v POST api.example.com Authorization:"Bearer token" data=test

# Download with progress
http --download https://files.example.com/large.tar.gz

# Offline request preview
http --offline DELETE api.example.com/resource/42 Authorization:"Bearer token"