Curl — HTTP Request Testing Tool

Curl is a command-line HTTP request tool built with Python's urllib module. It supports all major HTTP methods, file upload/download, custom headers, and maintains a history of all requests for debugging and replay.

Request history is stored in ~/.curl/data.jsonl as JSONL records.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+ with standard library
• bash shell

Commands

get

Send an HTTP GET request.

Environment Variables:

• URL (required) — Target URL
• HEADERS — JSON object of custom headers (e.g., '{"Authorization": "Bearer token"}')
• PARAMS — Query parameters as JSON object
• TIMEOUT — Request timeout in seconds (default: 30)
• FOLLOW — Follow redirects: true/false (default: true)

Example:

URL="https://api.example.com/users" HEADERS='{"Accept":"application/json"}' bash scripts/script.sh get

post

Send an HTTP POST request.

Environment Variables:

• URL (required) — Target URL
• BODY — Request body (JSON string or plain text)
• HEADERS — JSON object of custom headers
• CONTENT_TYPE — Content-Type header (default: application/json)
• TIMEOUT — Request timeout in seconds (default: 30)

Example:

URL="https://api.example.com/users" BODY='{"name":"John"}' bash scripts/script.sh post

put

Send an HTTP PUT request.

Environment Variables:

• URL (required) — Target URL
• BODY — Request body
• HEADERS — JSON object of custom headers
• CONTENT_TYPE — Content-Type (default: application/json)

delete

Send an HTTP DELETE request.

Environment Variables:

• URL (required) — Target URL
• HEADERS — JSON object of custom headers

head

Send an HTTP HEAD request (returns headers only).

Environment Variables:

• URL (required) — Target URL
• HEADERS — JSON object of custom headers

options

Send an HTTP OPTIONS request to check allowed methods.

Environment Variables:

• URL (required) — Target URL

upload

Upload a file via HTTP POST multipart/form-data.

Environment Variables:

• URL (required) — Upload endpoint URL
• FILE (required) — Path to file to upload
• FIELD — Form field name (default: file)
• HEADERS — JSON object of custom headers

download

Download a file from a URL.

Environment Variables:

• URL (required) — File URL to download
• OUTPUT (required) — Local path to save file
• HEADERS — JSON object of custom headers

headers

Display response headers from a request.

Environment Variables:

• URL (required) — Target URL
• METHOD — HTTP method (default: GET)

config

View or update configuration settings.

Environment Variables:

• KEY — Configuration key
• VALUE — Configuration value

history

View past request history.

Environment Variables:

• LIMIT — Maximum entries to show (default: 20)
• METHOD — Filter by HTTP method
• STATUS — Filter by status code
• SEARCH — Search in URLs

help

Display usage information and available commands.

version

Display the current version of the curl tool.

Data Storage

Request history stored in ~/.curl/data.jsonl. Each record contains:

• id — Unique request identifier
• timestamp — ISO 8601 time
• method — HTTP method
• url — Request URL
• status — Response status code
• headers_sent — Request headers
• headers_received — Response headers
• body_sent — Request body (truncated)
• body_received — Response body (truncated to 1KB)
• duration_ms — Request duration in milliseconds
• error — Error message if request failed

Configuration

Config stored in ~/.curl/config.json:

• default_timeout — Default timeout seconds (default: 30)
• follow_redirects — Follow redirects by default (default: true)
• max_body_log — Max response body chars to log (default: 1024)
• default_headers — Default headers for all requests
• save_history — Whether to save request history (default: true)

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