About REST Handler

Lightweight REST client — collections, env vars, history, format converter (cURL / Collection JSON / REST Handler YAML). Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the API / Config collection.

Use Cases

• Backend developers testing API endpoints during development
• QA engineers building reusable API test collections
• DevOps teams debugging webhook integrations with history tracking
• Frontend developers inspecting API responses before UI integration

Tips

• Organize requests into collections for reusable API workflows
• Use environment variables to switch between dev and prod endpoints
• Import cURL commands directly to build requests faster

Fun Facts

• Postman, the most popular REST client, started as a Chrome extension in 2012 by Abhinav Asthana and grew to a $5.6 billion valuation by 2021 with over 25 million users.
• REST (Representational State Transfer) was defined by Roy Fielding in his 2000 doctoral dissertation at UC Irvine — Chapter 5 of his thesis describes the six REST constraints.
• The curl command-line tool was first released by Daniel Stenberg on March 20, 1998 and now ships pre-installed on Windows 10, macOS, and most Linux distributions.

FAQ

What's the difference from Postman?

Lightweight, browser-based, no account needed. Postman has more features (automated tests, monitoring); REST Handler is focused on quick API exploration and team sharing.

Collections — how do they work?

Group related requests into a collection. Share via export/import. Collection JSON v2.1 is Postman-compatible for easy migration.

Environment variables?

Per-collection. Switch between dev/staging/prod with one click. Variables are templated into URLs, headers, and body: `{{baseUrl}}/users`.

What about request history?

Every executed request is saved locally. Replay any past request with one click. Stored in localStorage; clear history to purge.