Introduction

Slumber is a terminal-based HTTP client, built for interacting with REST and other HTTP clients. It has two usage modes: Terminal User Interface (TUI) and Command Line Interface (CLI). The TUI is the most useful, and allows for interactively sending requests and viewing responses. The CLI is useful for sending quick requests and scripting.

The goal of Slumber is to be easy to use, configurable, and sharable. To that end, configuration is defined in a YAML file called the request collection. Both usage modes (TUI and CLI) share the same basic configuration, which is called the request collection.

Check out the Getting Started guide to try it out, or move onto Key Concepts to start learning in depth about Slumber.

Install

See installation instructions

Getting Started

Quick Start

Once you've installed Slumber, setup is easy.

1. Create a Slumber collection file

Slumber's core feature is that it's source-based. That means you write down your configuration in a file first, then run Slumber and it reads the file. This differs from other popular clients such as Postman and Insomnia. The goal of being source-based is to make it easy to save and share your configurations.

To get started, create a file called slumber.yml and add the following contents:

requests:
  get: !request
    method: GET
    url: https://httpbin.org/get

Note: the !request tag, which tells Slumber that this is a request recipe, not a folder. This is YAML's tag syntax, which is used commonly throughout Slumber to provide explicit configuration.

2. Run Slumber

slumber

Going Further

Here's a more complete example:

# slumber.yml
profiles:
  local:
    data:
      host: http://localhost:5000
  production:
    data:
      host: https://myfishes.fish

requests:
  create_fish: !request
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    body: !json { "kind": "barracuda", "name": "Jimmy" }

  list_fish: !request
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    query:
      - big=true

This request collection uses templates and profiles allow you to dynamically change the target host.

Key Concepts

There are a handful of key concepts you need to understand how to effectively configure and use Slumber. You can read about each one in detail on its linked API reference page.

Request Collection

The collection is the main form of configuration. It defines a set of request recipes, which enable Slumber to make requests to your API.

Request Recipe

A recipe defines which HTTP requests Slumber can make. A recipe generally correponds to one endpoint on an API, although you can create as many recipes per endpoint as you'd like.

Template

Templates are Slumber's most powerful feature. They allow you to dynamically build URLs, query parameters, request bodies, etc. using predefined or dynamic values.

Profile

A profile is a set of static template values. A collection can contain a list of profiles, allowing you to quickly switch between different sets of values. This is useful for using different deployment environments, different sets of IDs, etc.

Terminal User Interface

The Terminal User Interface (TUI) is the primary use case for Slumber. It provides a long-lived, interactive interface for sending HTTP requests, akin to Insomnia or Postman. The difference of course is Slumber runs entirely in the terminal.

To start the TUI, simply run:

slumber

This will detect your request collection file according to the protocol. If you want to load a different file, you can use the --file parameter:

slumber --file my-slumber.yml

Auto-Reload

Once you start your Slumber, that session is tied to a single collection file. Whenever that file is modified, Slumber will automatically reload it and changes will immediately be reflected in the TUI. If auto-reload isn't working for some reason, you can manually reload the file with the r key.

Multiple Sessions

Slumber supports running multiple sessions at once, even on the same collection. Request history is stored in a thread-safe SQLite, so multiple sessions can safely interact simultaneously.

If you frequently run multiple sessions together and want to quickly switch between them, consider a configurable terminal manager like tmux or Zellij.

Command Line Interface

While Slumber is primary intended as a TUI, it also provides a Command Line Interface (CLI). The CLI can be used to send requests, just like the TUI. It also provides some utility commands for functionality not available in the TUI. For a full list of available commands see the side bar or run:

slumber help

Some common CLI use cases:

• Send requests
• Import from an external format
• Generate request in an external format (e.g. curl)
• View Slumber configuration/metadata

Templates

Templates enable dynamic string/binary construction. Slumber's template language is relatively simple, compared to complex HTML templating languages like Handlebars or Jinja. The goal is to be intuitive and unsurprising. It doesn't support complex features like loops, conditionals, etc.

Most string values in a request collection (e.g. URL, request body, etc.) are templates. Map keys (e.g. recipe ID, profile ID) are not templates; they must be static strings.

The syntax for injecting a dynamic value into a template is double curly braces {{...}}. The contents inside the braces tell Slumber how to retrieve the dynamic value.

This guide serves as a functional example of how to use templates. For detailed information on options available, see the API reference.

A note on YAML string syntax

One of the advantages (and disadvantages) of YAML is that it has a number of different string syntaxes. This enables you to customize your templates according to your specific needs around the behavior of whitespace and newlines. See YAML's string syntaxes and yaml-multiline.info for more info on YAML strings.

A Basic Example

Let's start with a simple example. Let's say you're working on a fish-themed website, and you want to make requests both to your local stack and the deployed site. Templates, combined with profiles, allow you to easily switch between hosts:

Note: for the purposes of these examples, I've made up some theoretical endpoints and responses, following standard REST practice. This isn't a real API but it should get the point across.

Additionally, these examples will use the CLI because it's easy to demonstrate in text. All these concepts apply equally to the TUI.

profiles:
  local:
    data:
      host: http://localhost:5000
  production:
    data:
      host: https://myfishes.fish

requests:
  list_fish: !request
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    query:
      - big=true

Now you can easily select which host to hit. In the TUI, this is done via the Profile list. In the CLI, use the --profile option:

> slumber request --profile local list_fish
# http://localhost:5000/fishes
# Only one fish :(
[{"id": 1, "kind": "tuna", "name": "Bart"}]
> slumber request --profile production list_fish
# https://myfishes.fish/fishes
# More fish!
[
  {"id": 1, "kind": "marlin", "name": "Kim"},
  {"id": 2, "kind": "salmon", "name": "Francis"}
]

Nested Templates

What if you need a more complex chained value? Let's say the endpoint to get a fish requires the fish ID to be in the format fish_{id}. Why? Don't worry about it. Fish are particular. Templates support nesting implicitly. You can use this to compose template values into more complex strings. Just be careful not to trigger infinite recursion!

profiles:
  local:
    data:
      host: http://localhost:5000
      fish_id: "fish_{{chains.fish_id}}"

chains:
  fish_id:
    source: !request
      recipe: create_fish
    selector: $.id

requests:
  create_fish: !request
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    body: !json { "kind": "barracuda", "name": "Jimmy" }

  get_fish: !request
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes/{{fish_id}}"

And let's see it in action:

> slumber request -p local create_fish
# http://localhost:5000/fishes
{"id": 2, "kind": "barracuda", "name": "Jimmy"}
> slumber request -p local get_fish
# http://localhost:5000/fishes/fish_2
{"id": "fish_2", "kind": "barracuda", "name": "Jimmy"}

Binary Templates

While templates are mostly useful for generating strings, they can also generate binary data. This is most useful for sending binary request bodies. Some fields (e.g. URL) do not support binary templates because they need valid text; in those cases, if the template renders to non-UTF-8 data, an error will be returned. In general, if binary data can be supported, it is.

Note: Support for binary form data is currently incomplete. You can render binary data from templates, but forms must be constructed manually. See #235 for more info.

profiles:
  local:
    data:
      host: http://localhost:5000
      fish_id: "cod_father"

chains:
  fish_image:
    source: !file
      path: ./cod_father.jpg

requests:
  set_fish_image: !request
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes/{{fish_id}}/image"
    headers:
      Content-Type: image/jpg
    body: "{{chains.fish_image}}"

Chains

Chains are Slumber's most powerful feature. They allow you to dynamically build requests based on other responses, shell commands, and more.

Chains in Practice

The most common example of a chain is with a login request. You can define a recipe to log in to a service using username+password, then get the returned API token to authenticate subsequent requests. Of course, we don't want to store our credentials in Slumber file, so we can also use chains to fetch those. Let's see this in action:

chains:
  username:
    source: !file
      path: ./username.txt
  password:
    source: !file
      path: ./password.txt
  auth_token:
    source: !request
      recipe: login
    selector: $.token

requests:
  # This returns a response like {"token": "abc123"}
  login: !request
    method: POST
    url: "https://myfishes.fish/login"
    body:
      !json {
        "username": "{{chains.username}}",
        "password": "{{chains.password}}",
      }

  get_user: !request
    method: GET
    url: "https://myfishes.fish/current-user"
    authentication: !bearer "{{chains.auth_token}}"

For more info on the selector field, see Data Filtering & Querying

Automatically Executing the Upstream Request

By default, the chained request (i.e. the "upstream" request) has to be executed manually to get the login token. You can have the upstream request automatically execute using the trigger field:

chains:
  auth_token:
    source: !request
      recipe: login
      # Execute only if we've never logged in before
      trigger: !no_history
    selector: $.token
---
chains:
  auth_token:
    source: !request
      recipe: login
      # Execute only if the latest response is older than a day. Useful if your
      # token expires after a fixed amount of time
      trigger: !expire 1d
    selector: $.token
---
chains:
  auth_token:
    source: !request
      recipe: login
      # Always execute
      trigger: !always
    selector: $.token

For more detail about the various trigger variants, including the syntax of the expire variant, see the API docs.

Chaining Chains

Chains on their own are powerful enough, but what makes them really cool is that the arguments to a chain are templates in themselves, meaning you can use nested templates to chain chains to other chains! Wait, what?

Let's say the login response doesn't return JSON, but instead the response looks like this:

token:abc123

Clearly this isn't a well-designed API, but sometimes that's all you get. You can use a nested chain with cut to parse this:

chains:
  username:
    source: !file
      path: ./username.txt
  password_encrypted:
    source: !file
      path: ./password.txt
  password:
    source: !command
      command:
  auth_token_raw:
    source: !request
      recipe: login
  auth_token:
    source: !command
      command: ["cut", "-d':'", "-f2"]
      stdin: "{{chains.auth_token_raw}}"

requests:
  login: !request
    method: POST
    url: "https://myfishes.fish/login"
    body:
      !json {
        "username": "{{chains.username}}",
        "password": "{{chains.password}}",
      }

  get_user: !request
    method: GET
    url: "https://myfishes.fish/current-user"
    authentication: !bearer "{{chains.auth_token}}"

This means you can use external commands to perform any manipulation on data that you want.

Collection Reuse & Inheritance

The Problem

Let's start with an example of something that sucks. Let's say you're making requests to a fish-themed JSON API, and it requires authentication. Gotta protect your fish! Your request collection might look like so:

profiles:
  production:
    data:
      host: https://myfishes.fish
      fish_id: 6

chains:
  token:
    source: !file
      path: ./api_token.txt

requests:
  list_fish: !request
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    query:
      - big=true
    headers:
      Accept: application/json
    authentication: !bearer "{{chains.token}}"

  get_fish: !request
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes/{{fish_id}}"
    headers:
      Accept: application/json
    authentication: !bearer "{{chains.token}}"

The Solution

You've heard of DRY, so you know this is bad. Every new request recipe requires re-specifying the headers, and if anything about the authorization changes, you have to change it in multiple places.

You can easily re-use components of your collection using YAML's merge feature.

profiles:
  production:
    data:
      host: https://myfishes.fish

chains:
  token:
    source: !file
      path: ./api_token.txt

# This is needed to tell Slumber not to complain about an unknown key
.ignore:
  # The name here is arbitrary, pick any name you like
  request_base: &request_base
    headers:
      Accept: application/json
    authentication: !bearer "{{chains.token}}"

requests:
  list_fish: !request
    <<: *request_base
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    query:
      - big=true

  get_fish: !request
    <<: *request_base
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes/{{chains.fish_id}}"

Great! That's so much cleaner. Now each recipe can inherit whatever base properties you want just by including <<: *request_base. This is still a bit repetitive, but it has the advantage of being explicit. You may have some requests that don't want to include those values.

Recursive Inheritance

But wait! What if you have a new request that needs an additional header? Unfortunately, YAML's merge feature does not support recursive merging. If you need to extend the headers map from the base request, you'll need to pull that map in manually:

profiles:
  production:
    data:
      host: https://myfishes.fish

chains:
  token:
    source: !file
      path: ./api_token.txt

.ignore:
  request_base: &request_base
    headers: &headers_base # This will let us pull in the header map
      Accept: application/json
    authentication: !bearer "{{chains.token}}"

requests:
  list_fish: !request
    <<: *request_base
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    query:
      - big=true

  get_fish: !request
    <<: *request_base
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes/{{chains.fish_id}}"

  create_fish: !request
    <<: *request_base
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    headers:
      <<: *headers_base
      Host: myfishes.fish
    body: !json { "kind": "barracuda", "name": "Jimmy" }

Data Filtering & Querying

Slumber supports querying data structures to transform or reduce response data.

There are two main use cases for querying:

• In chained template values, to extract data
  • Provided via chain's selector argument
• In the TUI response body browser, to limit the response data shown

Regardless of data format, querying is done via JSONPath. For non-JSON formats, the data will be converted to JSON, queried, and converted back. This keeps querying simple and uniform across data types.

Querying Chained Values

Here's some examples of using queries to extract data from a chained value. Let's say you have two chained value sources. The first is a JSON file, called creds.json. It has the following contents:

{ "user": "fishman", "pw": "hunter2" }

We'll use these credentials to log in and get an API token, so the second data source is the login response, which looks like so:

{ "token": "abcdef123" }

chains:
  username:
    # Slumber knows how to query this file based on its extension
    source: !file
      path: ./creds.json
    selector: $.user
  password:
    source: !file
      path: ./creds.json
    selector: $.pw
  auth_token:
    source: !request
      recipe: login
    selector: $.token

requests:
  login: !request
    method: POST
    url: "https://myfishes.fish/anything/login"
    body:
      !json {
        "username": "{{chains.username}}",
        "password": "{{chains.password}}",
      }

  get_user: !request
    method: GET
    url: "https://myfishes.fish/anything/current-user"
    query:
      - auth={{chains.auth_token}}

While this example simple extracts inner fields, JSONPath can be used for much more powerful transformations. See the JSONPath docs or this JSONPath editor for more examples.

More Powerful Querying with Nested Chains

If JSONPath isn't enough for the data extraction you need, you can use nested chains to filter with whatever external programs you want. For example, if you want to use jq instead:

chains:
  username:
    source: !file
      path: ./creds.json
    selector: $.user
  password:
    source: !file
      path: ./creds.json
    selector: $.pw
  auth_token_raw:
    source: !request
      recipe: login
  auth_token:
    source: !command
      command: [ "jq", ".token" ]
      stdin: "{{chains.auth_token_raw}}

requests:
  login: !request
    method: POST
    url: "https://myfishes.fish/anything/login"
    body: !json
      {
        "username": "{{chains.username}}",
        "password": "{{chains.password}}"
      }

  get_user: !request
    method: GET
    url: "https://myfishes.fish/anything/current-user"
    query:
      - auth={{chains.auth_token}}

You can use this capability to manipulate responses via grep, awk, or any other program you like.

Querying Response in TUI

You can visually query a response body using the filter box at the bottom. Here is a full response, with no query applied:

And here it is with the query $.data applied:

Importing External Collections

See the slumber import subcommand.

slumber request

Send an HTTP request. There are many use cases to which the CLI is better suited than the TUI for sending requests, including:

• Sending a single one-off request
• Sending many requests in parallel
• Automating requests in a script
• Sharing requests with others

See slumber request --help for more options.

Examples

Given this request collection:

profiles:
  production:
    data:
      host: https://myfishes.fish

requests:
  list_fish: !request
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    query:
      - big=true

slumber request --profile production list_fishes
slumber rq -p production list_fishes # rq is a shorter alias
slumber -f fishes.yml -p production list_fishes # Different collection file

Overrides

You can manually override template values using CLI arguments. This means the template renderer will use the override value in place of calculating it. For example:

slumber request list_fishes --override host=https://dev.myfishes.fish

This can also be used to override chained values:

slumber request login --override chains.password=hunter2

Exit Code

By default, the CLI returns exit code 1 if there is a fatal error, e.g. the request failed to build or a network error occurred. If an HTTP response was received and parsed, the process will exit with code 0, regardless of HTTP status.

If you want to set the exit code based on the HTTP response status, use the flag --exit-code.

slumber import

Generate a Slumber collection file based on an external format.

See slumber import --help for more options.

Disclaimer

Importers are approximate. They'll give the you skeleton of a collection file, but don't expect 100% equivalency. They save a lot of tedious work for you, but you'll generally still need to do some manual work on the collection file to get what you want.

Examples

The general format is:

slumber import <format> <input> [output]

For example, to import from an Insomnia collection insomnia.json:

slumber import insomnia insomnia.json slumber.yml

Formats

Supported formats:

• Insomnia
• OpenAPI v3.0
  • Note: Despite the minor version bump, OpenAPI v3.1 is not backward compatible with v3.0. If you have a v3.1 spec, it may work with this importer, but no promises.

Requested formats:

• JetBrains HTTP

If you'd like another format supported, please open an issue.

slumber generate

Generate an HTTP request in an external format. Currently the only supported format is cURL.

Examples

Given this request collection:

profiles:
  production:
    data:
      host: https://myfishes.fish

requests:
  list_fish: !request
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    query:
      - big=true

slumber generate curl --profile production list_fishes

Overrides

The generate subcommand supports overriding template values in the same that slumber request does. See the request subcommand docs for more.

See slumber generate --help for more options.

slumber collections

View and manipulate stored collection history/state. Slumber uses a local database to store all request/response history, as well as UI state and other persisted values. As a user, you rarely have to worry about this. The most common scenario in which you do have to is if you've renamed a collection file and want to migrate the history to match the new path.

See slumber collections --help for more options.

History & Migration

Each collection needs a unique ID, which generated when the collection is first loaded by Slumber and bound to the collection file's path. This ID is used to persist request history and other data related to the collection. If you move a collection file, a new ID will be generated and it will be unlinked from its previous history. If you want to retain that history, you can migrate data from the old ID to the new one like so:

slumber collections migrate slumber-old.yml slumber-new.yml

If you don't remember the path of the old file, you can list all known collections with:

slumber collections list

slumber show

Print metadata about Slumber.

See slumber show --help for more options.

Examples

slumber show paths # Show paths of various Slumber data files/directories
slumber show config # Print global configuration
slumber show collection # Print collection file

Request Collection

The request collection is the primary configuration for Slumber. It defines which requests can be made, and how to make them. When running a slumber instance, a single collection file is loaded. If you want to work with multiple collections at once, you'll have to run multiple instances of Slumber.

Collection files are designed to be sharable, meaning you can commit them to your Git repo. The most common pattern is to create one collection per API repo, and check it into the repo so other developers of the API can use the same collection. This makes it easy for any new developer or user to learn how to use an API.

Format & Loading

A collection is defined as a YAML file. When you run slumber, it will search the current directory and its parents for the following default collection files, in order:

• slumber.yml
• slumber.yaml
• .slumber.yml
• .slumber.yaml

Whichever of those files is found first will be used. For any given directory, if no collection file is found there, it will recursively go up the directory tree until we find a collection file or hit the root directory. If you want to use a different file for your collection (e.g. if you want to store multiple collections in the same directory), you can override the auto-search with the --file (or -f) command line argument. E.g.:

slumber -f my-collection.yml

Fields

A request collection supports the following top-level fields:

Examples

profiles:
  local:
    name: Local
    data:
      host: http://localhost:5000
      user_guid: abc123
  prd:
    name: Production
    data:
      host: https://httpbin.org
      user_guid: abc123

chains:
  username:
    source: !file
      path: ./username.txt
  password:
    source: !prompt
      message: Password
    sensitive: true
  auth_token:
    source: !request
      recipe: login
    selector: $.token

# Use YAML anchors for de-duplication (Anything under .ignore will not trigger an error for unknown fields)
.ignore:
  base: &base
    headers:
      Accept: application/json

requests:
  login: !request
    <<: *base
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/anything/login"
    body:
      !json {
        "username": "{{chains.username}}",
        "password": "{{chains.password}}",
      }

  # Folders can be used to keep your recipes organized
  users: !folder
    requests:
      get_user: !request
        <<: *base
        name: Get User
        method: GET
        url: "{{host}}/anything/current-user"
        authentication: !bearer "{{chains.auth_token}}"

      update_user: !request
        <<: *base
        name: Update User
        method: PUT
        url: "{{host}}/anything/current-user"
        authentication: !bearer "{{chains.auth_token}}"
        body: !json { "username": "Kenny" }

Profile

A profile is a collection of static template values. It's useful for configuring and switching between multiple different environments/settings/etc. Profile values are all templates themselves, so nested values can be used.

Fields

Examples

profiles:
  local:
    name: Local
    data:
      host: localhost:5000
      url: "https://{{host}}"
      user_guid: abc123

Template

A template is represented in YAML as a normal string, and thus supports all of YAML's string syntaxes. Templates receive post-processing that injects dynamic values into the string. A templated value is represented with {{...}}.

Templates can generally be used in any value in a request recipe (not in keys), as well as in profile values and chains. This makes them very powerful, because you can compose templates with complex transformations.

For more detail on usage and examples, see the user guide page on templates.

Template Sources

There are several ways of sourcing templating values:

Escape Sequences

In some scenarios you may want to use the {{ sequence to represent those literal characters, rather than the start of a template key. To achieve this, you can escape the sequence with a backslash \.

\{{this is raw text}}

If you want to represent a literal backslash before a template key, you can escape the backslash:

\\{{field1}}

Note: YAML also uses \ as its escape character, meaning you'll need to double all backslashes: the firs to escape in YAML, the second to escape in Slumber.

Any other backslash (i.e. any backslash not followed by another backslash or {{) is treated literally.

Examples

# Profile value
"hello, {{location}}"
---
# Multiple dynamic values
"{{greeting}}, {{location}}"
---
# Environment variable
"hello, {{env.LOCATION}}"
---
# Chained value
"hello, {{chains.where_am_i}}"
---
# No dynamic values
"hello, world!"
---
# Escaped template key
"\\{{this is raw text}}"
---
# Escaped backslash
"\\\\{{location}}"

Request Recipe

A request recipe defines how to make a particular request. For a REST API, you'll typically create one request recipe per endpoint. Other HTTP tools often call this just a "request", but that name can be confusing because "request" can also refer to a single instance of an HTTP request. Slumber uses the term "recipe" because it's used to render many requests. The word "template" would work as a synonym here, although we avoid that term here because it also refers to string templates.

Recipes can be organized into folders. This means your set of recipes can form a tree structure. Folders are purely organizational, and don't impact the behavior of their child recipes at all.

The IDs of your folders/recipes must be globally unique. This means you can't have two recipes (or two folders, or one recipe and one folder) with the same associated key, even if they are in different folders. This restriction makes it easy to refer to recipes unambiguously using a single ID, which is helpful for CLI usage and data storage.

Recipe Fields

The tag for a recipe is !request (see examples).

Folder Fields

The tag for a folder is !folder (see examples).

Examples

recipes:
  login: !request
    name: Login
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/anything/login"
    headers:
      accept: application/json
    query:
      - root_access=yes_please
    body:
      !json {
        "username": "{{chains.username}}",
        "password": "{{chains.password}}",
      }
  fish: !folder
    name: Users
    requests:
      create_fish: !request
        method: POST
        url: "{{host}}/fishes"
        body: !json { "kind": "barracuda", "name": "Jimmy" }

      list_fish: !request
        method: GET
        url: "{{host}}/fishes"
        query:
          - big=true

Query Parameters

Query parameters are a component of a request URL. They provide additional information to the server about a request. In a request recipe, query parameters can be defined in one of two formats:

• Mapping of key: value
• List of strings, in the format <key>=<value>

The mapping format is typically more readable, but the list format allows you to define the same query parameter multiple times. In either format, the key is treated as a plain string but the value is treated as a template.

Note: If you need to include a = in your parameter name, you'll need to use the mapping format. That means there is currently no support for multiple instances of a parameter with = in the name. This is very unlikely to be a restriction in the real world, but if you need support for this please open an issue.

Examples

recipes:
  get_fishes_mapping: !request
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/get"
    query:
      big: true
      color: red
      name: "{{name}}"

  get_fishes_list: !request
    method: GET
    url: "{{host}}/get"
    query:
      - big=true
      - color=red
      - color=blue
      - name={{name}}

Authentication

Authentication provides shortcuts for common HTTP authentication schemes. It populates the authentication field of a recipe. There are multiple source types, and the type is specified using YAML's tag syntax.

Variants

Basic Authentication

Basic authentication contains a username and optional password.

Examples

# Basic auth
requests:
  create_fish: !request
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    body: !json { "kind": "barracuda", "name": "Jimmy" }
    authentication: !basic
      username: user
      password: pass
---
# Bearer token auth
chains:
  token:
    source: !file
      path: ./token.txt
requests:
  create_fish: !request
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes"
    body: !json { "kind": "barracuda", "name": "Jimmy" }
    authentication: !bearer "{{chains.token}}"

Recipe Body

There are a variety of ways to define the body of your request. Slumber supports structured bodies for a fixed set of known content types (see table below).

In addition, you can pass any Template to render any text or binary data. In this case, you'll probably want to explicitly set the Content-Type header to tell the server what kind of data you're sending. This may not be necessary though, depending on the server implementation.

Body Types

The following content types have first-class support. Slumber will automatically set the Content-Type header to the specified value, but you can override this simply by providing your own value for the header.

Examples

chains:
  image:
    source: !file
      path: ./fish.png

requests:
  text_body: !request
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes/{{fish_id}}/name"
    headers:
      Content-Type: text/plain
    body: Alfonso

  binary_body: !request
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes/{{fish_id}}/image"
    headers:
      Content-Type: image/jpg
    body: "{{chains.fish_image}}"

  json_body: !request
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes/{{fish_id}}"
    # Content-Type header will be set automatically based on the body type
    body: !json { "name": "Alfonso" }

  urlencoded_body: !request
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes/{{fish_id}}"
    # Content-Type header will be set automatically based on the body type
    body: !form_urlencoded
      name: Alfonso

  multipart_body: !request
    method: POST
    url: "{{host}}/fishes/{{fish_id}}"
    # Content-Type header will be set automatically based on the body type
    body: !form_multipart
      name: Alfonso
      image: "{{chains.fish_image}}"

Chain

A chain is a intermediate data type to enable complex template values. Chains also provide additional customization, such as marking values as sensitive.

To use a chain in a template, reference it as {{chains.<id>}}.

Fields

See the ChainSource docs for detail on the different types of chainable values.

Chain Output Trim

This defines how leading/trailing whitespace should be trimmed from the resolved output of a chain.

Examples

# Load chained value from a file
username:
  source: !file
    path: ./username.txt
---
# Prompt the user for a value whenever the request is made
password:
  source: !prompt
    message: Enter Password
  sensitive: true
---
# Use a value from another response
# Assume the request recipe with ID `login` returns a body like `{"token": "foo"}`
auth_token:
  source: !request
    recipe: login
  selector: $.token
---
# Use the output of an external command
username:
  source: !command
    command: [whoami]
    trim: both # Shell commands often include an unwanted trailing newline

Chain Source

A chain source defines how a Chain gets its value. It populates the source field of a chain. There are multiple source types, and the type is specified using YAML's tag syntax.

Examples

See the Chain docs for more complete examples.

!request
recipe: login
trigger: !expire 12h
---
!command
command: ["echo", "-n", "hello"]
---
!env
variable: USERNAME
---
!file
path: ./username.txt
---
!prompt
message: Enter Password

Variants

Request

Chain a value from the body of another response. This can reference either

Chain Request Trigger

This defines when a chained request should be triggered (i.e. when to execute a new request) versus when to use the most recent from history.

Duration is specified as an integer followed by a unit (with no space). Supported units are:

• s (seconds)
• m (minutes)
• h (hours)
• d (days)

Examples

!request
recipe: login
trigger: !never # This is the default, so the same as omitting
---
!request
recipe: login
trigger: !no_history
---
!request
recipe: login
trigger: !expire 12h
---
!request
recipe: login
trigger: !expire 30s
---
!request
recipe: login
trigger: !always

Chain Request Section

This defines which section of the response (headers or body) should be used to load the value from.

Examples

!request
recipe: login
section: !header Token # This will take the value of the 'Token' header

Command

Execute a command and use its stdout as the rendered value.

Environment Variable

Load a value from an environment variable.

File

Read a file and use its contents as the rendered value.

Prompt

Prompt the user for input to use as the rendered value.

Content Type

Content type defines the various data formats that Slumber recognizes and can manipulate. Slumber is capable of displaying any text-based data format, but only specific formats support additional features such as querying and formatting.

Auto-detection

For chained requests, Slumber uses the HTTP Content-Type header to detect the content type. For chained files, it uses the file extension. For other chain sources, or Slumber is unable to detect the content type, you'll have to manually provide the content type via the chain content_type field.

Supported Content Types

Configuration

Configuration provides application-level settings, as opposed to collection-level settings.

Location & Creation

Configuration is stored in the Slumber root directory, under the file config.yml. To find the root directory, you can run:

slumber show dir

To quickly create and edit the file:

# Replace vim with your favorite text editor
vim $(slumber show dir)/config.yml

If the root directory doesn't exist yet, you can create it yourself or have Slumber create it by simply starting the TUI.

Fields

Input Bindings

You can customize all input bindings in the configuration. An input binding is a mapping between an action (a high-level verb) and one or more key combinations.

For example if you want vim bindings (h/j/k/l instead of left/down/up/right):

# config.yaml
input_bindings:
  up: [k]
  down: [j]
  left: [h]
  right: [l]
  scroll_left: [shift h]
  scroll_right: [shift l]
  select_recipe_list: [p] # Rebind from `l`

Each action maps to a list of key combinations, because you can map multiple combinations to a single action. Hitting any of these combinations will trigger the action. By defining a binding in the config, you will replace the default binding for that action. If you want to retain the default binding but add an additional, you will need to include the default in your list of custom bindings. For example, if you want vim bindings but also want to leave the existing arrow key controls in place:

input_bindings:
  up: [up, k]
  down: [down, j]
  left: [left, h]
  right: [right, l]
  scroll_left: [shift left, shift h]
  scroll_right: [shift right, shift l]
  select_recipe_list: [p] # Rebind from `l`

Actions

Note: mouse bindings are not configurable; mouse actions such as left_click can be bound to a key combination, which cannot be unbound from the default mouse action.

Key Combinations

A key combination consists of zero or more modifiers, followed by a single key code. The modifiers and the code all each separated by a single space. Some examples:

• w
• shift f2
• alt shift c
• ctrl alt delete

Key Codes

All single-character keys (e.g. w, /, =, etc.) are not listed; the code is just the character.

• escape/esc
• enter
• left
• right
• up
• down
• home
• end
• pageup/pgup
• pagedown/pgdn
• tab
• backtab
• backspace
• delete/del
• insert/ins
• capslock/caps
• scrolllock
• numlock
• printscreen
• pausebreak (sometimes just called Pause; not the same as the Pause media key)
• menu
• keypadbegin
• f1
• f2
• f3
• f4
• f5
• f6
• f7
• f8
• f9
• f10
• f11
• f12
• space
• play
• pause (the media key, not Pause/Break)
• playpause
• reverse
• stop
• fastforward
• rewind
• tracknext
• trackprevious
• record
• lowervolume
• raisevolume
• mute

Key Modifiers

• shift
• alt
• ctrl
• super
• hyper
• meta

Theme

Theming allows you to customize the appearance of the Slumber TUI. To start, open up your configuration file and add some theme settings:

theme:
  primary_color: green
  secondary_color: blue

Fields

Color Format

Colors can be specified as names (e.g. "yellow"), RGB codes (e.g. #ffff00) or ANSI color indexes. See the Ratatui docs for more details on color deserialization.

Logs

Each Slumber session logs information and events to a log file. This can often be helpful in debugging bugs and other issues with the app. Each session of Slumber logs to its own file, and files are stored in a temporary directory so they are automatically cleaned up periodically by the operating system.

Finding the Log File

To find the path to a particular TUI session's log file, hit the ? to open the help dialog. It will be listed under the General section. To find logs for a CLI command, pass the --log argument and it will be printed at startup.

Note: Each Slumber session, including each invocation of the CLI, will log to its own file. That means there's no easy way to retroactively find the logs for a CLI command if you didn't pass --log. Instead, you can find the log directory with slumber show paths, then search each log file in that directory to find the one associated with the command in question. If the thing you're debugging is reproducible though, it's easier just to run it again with --log.

Once you have the path to a log file, you can watch the logs with tail -f <log file>, or get the entire log contents with cat <log file>.

Increasing Verbosity

In some scenarios, the default logging level is not verbose enough to debug issues. To increase the verbosity, set the RUST_LOG environment variable when starting Slumber:

RUST_LOG=slumber=<level> slumber ...

The slumber= filter applies this level only to Slumber's internal logging, instead of all libraries, to cut down on verbosity that will likely not be helpful. The available log levels are, in increasing verbosity:

• error
• warn
• info
• debug
• trace

Lost Request History

If you've lost your request history, there are a few possible causes. In most cases request history is non-essential, but if you really want it back there may be a fix available.

If none of these fixes worked for you, and you still want your request history back, please open an issue and provide as much detail as possible.

Moved Collection File

If history is lost for an entire collection, the most likely cause is that you moved your collection file. To fix this, you can migrate your request history.

Changed Recipe ID

If you've lost request history for just a single recipe, you likely changed the recipe ID, which is the key associated with the recipe in your collection file (the parent folder(s) do not affect this). Unfortunately currently the only way to fix this is to revert to the old recipe ID.

Wrong Profile or Changed Profile ID

Each request+response in history is associated with a specific profile. If you're not seeing your expected request history, you may have a different profile selected than the one used to send the request(s).

Alternatively, you may have changed the ID of the associated profile. If so, unfortunately the only way to fix this is to revert to the old profile ID.

TLS Certificate Errors

If you're receiving certificate errors such as this one:

invalid peer certificate: UnknownIssuer

This is probably because the TLS certificate of the server you're hitting is expired, invalid, or self-signed. The best solution is to fix the error on the server, either by renewing the certificate or creating a signed one. In most cases this is the best solution. If not possible, you should just disable TLS on your server because it's not doing anything for you anyway.

If you can't or don't want to fix the certificate, and you need to keep TLS enabled for some reason, it's possible to configure Slumber to ignore TLS certificate errors on certain hosts.

WARNING: This is dangerous. You will be susceptible to MITM attacks on these hosts. Only do this if you control the server you're hitting, and are confident your network is not compromised.

• Open your Slumber configuration
• Add the field ignore_certificate_hosts: ["<hostname>"]
  • <hostname> is the domain or IP of the server you're requesting from