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A minimal Neovim REST client for .http/.rest files — inspired by vscode-restclient.

This is an MVP: using curl under the hood (via plenary.job), file-level variables, and a response split. No external runtime dependency beyond curl and plenary.nvim.

✨ Features

• 📝 Write requests in plain .http/.rest files, no special UI needed
• 🔀 Multiple requests per file, separated by ###
• ⚡ Send the request under the cursor, or a visual selection, with :RestClientRun
• 🛑 Cancel an in-flight request with :RestClientCancel
• 🔖 File-level variables (@name = value) with {{name}} substitution in the URL, headers, and body
• 🔗 Named requests (# @name id) and request variables ({{id.response.body.*}} / {{id.response.headers.*}}) to chain requests
• 🧵 Multi-line query strings (?key=value / &key=value continuation lines)
• 📬 Response rendered in a reusable split: status, timing, size, headers, and a pretty-printed body (JSON auto-indented)
• 🎨 Basic syntax highlighting and filetype detection for .http/.rest
• 🩺 :checkhealth restclient
• 🧱 No external runtime dependency beyond curl and plenary.nvim — everything else is plain Lua

⚡️ Requirements

• Neovim >= 0.10
• curl on your $PATH
• plenary.nvim

🚀 Getting Started

Check Installation below to add it to your config, then open a .http file and run :RestClientRun.

Installation

With lazy.nvim:

{
  "daniel-eichinger-snkeos/nvim-restclient",
  dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" },
  ft = { 'http', 'rest' },
  opts = {
    split = 'vertical',
  },
  keys = {
    { '<leader>rs', '<cmd>RestClientRun<cr>', desc = 'Send request' },
    { '<leader>rs', ':RestClientRun<cr>', mode = 'v', desc = 'Send request (selection)' },
    { '<leader>rc', '<cmd>RestClientCancel<cr>', desc = 'Cancel request' },
  },
}

Usage

Write a request in a .http file:

@host = httpbin.org

GET https://{{host}}/get?foo=bar
Accept: application/json

###

POST https://{{host}}/post
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "hello": "world"
}

Place your cursor anywhere inside a request block and run :RestClientRun. The response opens in a split (vertical by default) with the status line, timing, response size, headers, and body.

You can also visually select a range of lines and run :RestClientRun — the selection is parsed as a single request, ignoring ### boundaries.

Cancel a request that's taking too long with :RestClientCancel.

Bind your own keymaps, e.g.:

vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>rs", "<cmd>RestClientRun<cr>", { desc = "Send HTTP request" })
vim.keymap.set("v", "<leader>rs", ":RestClientRun<cr>", { desc = "Send HTTP request (selection)" })
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>rc", "<cmd>RestClientCancel<cr>", { desc = "Cancel HTTP request" })

Request syntax

METHOD URL [HTTP/1.1]
Header-Name: value
...
<blank line>
body...

• METHOD is optional and defaults to GET.

• Query strings can be spread across lines right after the request line:

  GET https://example.com/comments
      ?page=2
      &pageSize=10

• Lines starting with # or // before the request line / among headers are treated as comments.

• @name = value defines a file-level variable, usable anywhere in the file via {{name}} (including in other variable definitions).

Request variables

Name a request with a # @name <id> (or // @name <id>) comment line placed before its request line, then reference its response elsewhere in the file via {{id.response.body.*}} or {{id.response.headers.*}}:

# @name registerClient
POST {{baseUrl}}/oauth2/register
Content-Type: application/json

{ "client_name": "Test Client" }

@clientId = {{registerClient.response.body.client_id}}

###

GET {{baseUrl}}/oauth2/register/{{clientId}}
Accept: application/json

Configuration

require("restclient").setup({
  split = "vertical", -- or "horizontal"
  timeout_ms = 30000,
  curl_path = "curl",
  insecure = true, -- pass `-k` to curl to skip TLS certificate verification
})