a small open-source api request runner that runs in the browser. paste a url, add headers and a body if you need them, hit send. for the “i just need to poke this endpoint and see what comes back” moments where opening postman feels like overkill.
honest framing: this isn’t trying to compete with postman, hoppscotch, bruno, or insomnia. those tools are bigger, more featureful, and built by larger teams. api probe is intentionally small. i built it because i wanted something tiny i could embed in tutorials and pair with api mocker, and it ended up useful enough to put online.
what it does
- all the standard http methods: get, post, put, delete, patch, head, options
- environment variables: define
baseUrl,token,userIdonce, reference them with{{varName}}in urls, headers, and bodies. swap between dev / staging / prod environments without rewriting requests - request history + saved requests: recent requests are logged locally; the ones worth keeping pin to the sidebar
- auth helpers: bearer tokens, basic auth, or any custom authorization header. stored in your browser, not on a server
- body editors: syntax-highlighted json + xml, form-data key/value rows, raw text
- response viewer: pretty-printed json/xml, headers panel, response duration and size
how to use
- open apiprobe.dev
- paste a url (or a
{{baseUrl}}/pathif you set up an environment) - add headers / body / auth as needed
- send. response renders inline.
ctrl+enter sends the request from anywhere in the form.
hosted vs self-hosted
the hosted version at apiprobe.dev has a low rate limit on the proxy (it’s a free demo, not a backend i want to babysit indefinitely). for real day-to-day work, clone the repo and run it locally. same ui, no rate limit, your machine’s network reach.
git clone https://github.com/bradtraversy/apiprobe
cd apiprobe
npm install
npm run devif you want a full-featured browser-based tool you can leave on, hoppscotch is the well-trodden choice. api probe is the smaller, “i just want a clean window with a send button” alternative.