LAZYREQUEST

A lightweight minimal API Testing Client CLI tool inspired by VSCode REST Client syntax.

LAZYREQUEST recursively discovers .http and .rest files, automatically sends HTTP requests, and compares actual responses against expected responses defined in the templates.

Why LAZYREQUEST? If you already use VSCode REST Client, you don't need to learn another API testing tool. LAZYREQUEST uses the same syntax for HTTP requests.

Features

• Recursive file discovery - Automatically finds .http and .rest files
• Variable substitution - Supports {{variableName}} placeholders
• Multiple execution modes - Inline, single-file, or folder-based
• Smart response comparison - JSON-aware comparison with fallback strategies
• Sensible default assertion - If no ### HTTP/... response block is provided, status code must be 200
• Configurable timeouts and throttling
• Verbose logging for debugging
• Bail option to stop after N failures

Installation

bun install
bun run build

Usage

./lazyrequest [options]

Options

| Option | Description | Default | |--------|-------------|---------| | --http | HTTP raw text template (inline mode) | - | | --httpFile | Single HTTP template file path | - | | --httpFolder | Folder path to search for .http/.rest files | Current directory | | -t, --timeout | Request timeout in milliseconds | 5000 | | -v, --verbose | Enable verbose logging | false | | --bail / --bail=<n> | Stop after 1 failure (--bail) or after N failures (--bail=<n>) | disabled | | --runInBand | Execute requests sequentially | false | | --concurrent | Execute requests concurrently (default strategy) | true | | --showAfterDone | Print results after all requests finish | false |

Execution Modes

Inline Mode: Pass HTTP template directly via CLI

./lazyrequest --http "GET https://api.example.com/users"

Single File Mode: Test a specific HTTP file

./lazyrequest --httpFile ./api/users.http

Folder Mode (default): Recursively discover all .http and .rest files

./lazyrequest --httpFolder ./api-tests

HTTP Template Files

Create .http files to define your requests.

Template Features

• HTTP method and URL definition
• Custom headers
• Request body
• Expected response for validation
• Block-level and File-level variables
• Comments

Example Template

Here are shown all features supported.

# =========================================================
# LAZYREQUEST feature showcase template (single file)
# Covers: comments, file vars, scoped vars, recursive vars,
# request headers/body, expected response assertions,
# default 200 assertion, json/exact/partial(wildcard) body matching
# =========================================================

# File-level variables
@scheme = http
@host = localhost
@port = 8080
@baseUrl = {{scheme}}://{{host}}:{{port}}
@json = application/json
@apiToken = demo-token
@userId = 123

###
# 1) Default assertion feature:
# If no expected response block is provided, status must be 200
GET {{baseUrl}}/health HTTP/1.1
Accept: {{json}}

###
# 2) Request + expected response (JSON comparison strategy)
GET {{baseUrl}}/users/{{userId}} HTTP/1.1
Accept: {{json}}
Authorization: Bearer {{apiToken}}

###
# Expected response for previous request
@userUrl = {{baseUrl}}/users/{{userId}}
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: {{json}}
Location: {{userUrl}}

{"id":{{userId}},"url":"{{userUrl}}"}

###
# 3) Scoped/block variable override (applies only in this block)
@baseUrl = http://localhost:8080/scoped
POST {{baseUrl}}/users HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: {{json}}
X-Env: scoped

{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "email": "[email protected]"
}

###
# Expected response for scoped request
HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Content-Type: {{json}}
Location: http://localhost:8080/scoped/users/123

{"ok":true,"id":123}

###
# 4) Scope reset demo: back to file-level baseUrl
GET {{baseUrl}}/health HTTP/1.1
Accept: text/plain

###
# 5) Exact text comparison strategy
GET {{baseUrl}}/plain HTTP/1.1
Accept: text/plain

###
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/plain

exact-value

###
# 6) Partial/wildcard comparison strategy
GET {{baseUrl}}/page HTTP/1.1
Accept: text/html

###
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html

<html>*hello*</html>

Response Comparison Strategies

LAZYREQUEST automatically selects the best comparison strategy:

• JSON Comparison - Deep structural comparison for application/json responses
• Exact Match - Character-by-character comparison for text responses
• Partial Match - Substring and wildcard matching for HTML/text responses

Example Workflow

1. Create one or more .http or .rest files with request and expected response templates
2. Run LAZYREQUEST with appropriate options
3. LAZYREQUEST automatically discovers and parses all HTTP templates
4. Resolves variables and executes requests (concurrent by default, or --runInBand)
5. Compares actual responses against expected responses
6. Reports results with Bun-style output (✓ / ✗), source grouping, and a compact summary

Request Execution And Output

• Default behavior: concurrent + live output, so each result is printed as soon as it finishes.
• --showAfterDone: keeps the previous behavior and prints all results only after execution completes.
• --runInBand: runs requests sequentially (useful when order matters, bail is enabled, or you need per-request delays).