How to Test and Debug API in VS Code?

REST CLIENT is a great tool for testing & debugging APIs directly in VS Code. You can send HTTP requests and view responses directly in VS Code instead of firing up through Postman.

VS Code Extension - Click Here

Main Features

• Send/Cancel/Rerun HTTP request in editor and view response in a separate pane with syntax highlight
• Send GraphQL query and author GraphQL variables in editor
• Send cURL command in editor and copy HTTP request as cURL command
• Auto save and view/clear request history
• Compose MULTIPLE requests in a single file (separated by ###delimiter)
• View image response directly in pane
• Save raw response and response body only to local disk
• Fold and unfold response body
• Customize font(size/family/weight) in response preview
• Preview response with expected parts(headers only, body only, full response and both request and response)
• Authentication support for:
  • Basic Auth
  • Digest Auth
  • SSL Client Certificates
  • Azure Active Directory
  • Microsoft Identity Platform
  • AWS Signature v4
• Environments and custom/system variables support
  • Use variables in any place of request(URL, Headers, Body)
  • Support environment, file, request and prompt custom variables
  • Interactively assign prompt custom variables per request
  • Auto completion and hover support for both environment, file and request custom variables
  • Diagnostic support for request, file and prompt custom variables
  • Go to definition support for request and file custom variables
  • Find all references support ONLY for file custom variables
  • Provide system dynamic variables
    • {{$guid}}
    • {{$randomInt min max}}
    • {{$timestamp [offset option]}}
    • {{$datetime rfc1123|iso8601 [offset option]}}
    • {{$localDatetime rfc1123|iso8601 [offset option]}}
    • {{$processEnv [%]envVarName}}
    • {{$dotenv [%]variableName}}
    • {{$aadToken [new] [public|cn|de|us|ppe] [<domain|tenantId>] [aud:<domain|tenantId>]}}
  • Easily create/update/delete environments and environment variables in setting file
  • File variables can reference both custom and system variables
  • Support environment switch
  • Support shared environment to provide variables that available in all environments
• Generate code snippets for HTTP request in languages like Python, JavaScript and more!
• Remember Cookies for subsequent requests
• Proxy support
• Send SOAP requests, as well as snippet support to build SOAP envelope easily
• HTTP language support
  • .http and .rest file extensions support
  • Syntax highlight (Request and Response)
  • Auto completion for method, url, header, custom/system variables, mime types and so on
  • Comments (line starts with # or //) support
  • Support json and xml body indentation, comment shortcut and auto closing brackets
  • Code snippets for operations like GET and POST
  • Support navigate to symbol definitions(request and file level custom variable) in open http file
  • CodeLens support to add an actionable link to send request
  • Fold/Unfold for request block
• Support for Markdown fenced code blocks with either http or rest