API Client CLI

I built this project as a lightweight command-line HTTP client: a small, terminal-based alternative to using a full API tool when I want to quickly send requests, inspect responses, and reuse saved calls.

The goal of this project was to practice building a useful developer tool with a clear command interface, persistent local state, and practical HTTP request handling.

What It Does

api_client lets me send HTTP requests from the terminal and inspect the response directly. It currently supports:

• GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE requests
• Custom request headers
• Query parameters
• Plain text request bodies
• JSON request bodies
• Response status, headers, and body output
• Saving named requests locally
• Reusing saved requests
• Listing and deleting saved requests

Saved requests are stored locally in:

~/.api_client/requests.json

Why I Built It

I wanted to demonstrate that I can take a small product idea from a README-level specification to a working CLI tool. This project gave me a focused way to work with:

• Python CLI design with argparse
• HTTP requests using requests
• JSON serialization and local persistence
• Subcommands such as send, save, run, list, and delete
• Basic package configuration with setuptools
• Practical error handling and command flow design

Example Usage

Send a request:

api_client send --method GET --URI https://example.com

Send headers:

api_client send --method GET --URI https://example.com --headers Accept:application/json

Send a JSON body:

api_client send --method POST --URI https://example.com --json-body '{"name": "Jonathon"}'

Save a named request:

api_client save example-get --method GET --URI https://example.com

Run a saved request:

api_client run example-get

List saved requests:

api_client list

Delete a saved request:

api_client delete example-get

Installation

From the project directory:

pip install .

Install directly from GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/jonathon-chew/api-client.git

The package installs a console command:

api_client

Current Status

This is my v0.1.0 MVP. The core workflow is in place: I can send requests, inspect responses, save named requests, and reuse them later.

There are still areas I would improve next, especially around friendlier error messages, prettier saved-request output, stronger tests, and more polished response formatting.

Next Improvements

The next things I would add are:

• Better validation for malformed headers and parameters
• Cleaner output for list and get
• Friendlier handling of HTTP errors
• Tests for request parsing and saved-request persistence
• Auth helpers
• File uploads
• Response timing metrics

What This Shows

This project shows my ability to break down a small developer-tooling problem, design a usable CLI interface, work with HTTP and JSON data, persist local configuration, and package a Python script as an installable command-line tool.