---
id: httpie
version: "3.2.4"
license: BSD
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: dormant
---

# httpie — HTTPie: modern, user-friendly command-line HTTP client for the API era.

License: permissive · Maintenance: dormant · Downloads: 1.1M/mo

## What it is and what it does

HTTPie is a command-line HTTP client designed to make interacting with web APIs and HTTP servers as human-friendly as possible. It provides an intuitive syntax for building and sending HTTP requests, with formatted and colorized terminal output that makes responses easy to read. The tool supports common HTTP operations including custom headers, JSON data, form submissions, file uploads, authentication, proxies, HTTPS, and persistent sessions.

You use HTTPie by typing simple commands like `http GET example.com` or `http POST api.example.com name=value` directly in your terminal. It's built on top of requests and requests-toolbelt for the underlying HTTP functionality, with rich and Pygments handling the formatted output display. The package depends on 11 runtime libraries including charset-normalizer, defusedxml, multidict, and colorama to handle character encoding, XML safety, multipart data, and cross-platform terminal colors.

Use it for:

- Test and debug REST APIs during development without writing client code
- Quickly inspect HTTP responses with automatic JSON formatting and syntax highlighting
- Automate HTTP requests in shell scripts with readable, maintainable syntax
- Upload files or submit forms from the command line with natural parameter syntax
- Authenticate with APIs and manage persistent session cookies across requests

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

HTTPie is a command-line HTTP client that makes it easy to test, debug, and interact with APIs and HTTP servers using simple, human-friendly syntax with formatted and colorized output.

Yes, with conditions. HTTPie is stable, permissive-licensed, and widely used (top 5000 PyPI packages, 1.1M monthly downloads). However, the project is dormant with no releases in 651 days—verify that PYSEC-2023-242 does not affect your use case and that dependencies remain compatible with your Python version before adopting it for critical workflows.

## Install

pip install httpie
uv add httpie
poetry add httpie

## Installing httpie

Before you install: Low install friction with a pure Python wheel and 11 well-established runtime dependencies. The project is dormant (651 days since last release) but remains in Production/Stable status with active repository maintenance through December 2024.

License in practice: BSD license is permissive and imposes no significant restrictions on use, modification, or distribution in most contexts.

Quickstart:

pip install httpie

# Simple GET request
http GET httpie.io/hello

# POST with JSON data and custom header
http POST pie.dev/post X-API-Token:123 name=John

Requires Python 3.7 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the dormant maintenance status (651 days since release) affects compatibility with recent Python or dependency versions
- Details on the nature and severity of PYSEC-2023-242 and whether it has been patched in version 3.2.4

## Package facts

- License: BSD (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: dormant
- Downloads: 1.1M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: 1

## Tags

command line http client, api testing cli tool, http debugging terminal, curl alternative, rest api command line, http request cli, formatted http output, cli-tool, api-testing, http-client

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/httpie) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/httpie/)