[opensourcedex]

Restfox is a free, open source api development & testing project written in Vue and released under MIT. It has 2,758 GitHub stars, 145 forks and 49 open issues, and was last pushed 3 months ago. On this registry it ranks #71 of 103 tracked projects in API Development & Testing, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available.

What is Restfox?

What it is

Restfox is an offline-first HTTP and socket testing client for the web and desktop. It lives in the developer-tools and API-testing ecosystem, and it is built with Vue under the MIT license. It is distributed as a web app, desktop packages, and a Docker image.

The problem it solves is local testing of HTTP, REST, and socket requests. The README and topics show API client, GraphQL client, REST client, and testing tools support, plus response history, environment variables, context menus, and plugins.

Key capabilities

  • It sends HTTP and REST requests from desktop or web interfaces, per the HTTP, REST API, API client, and API testing topics.
  • It tests sockets, because the tagline and GitHub description identify it as an HTTP and socket testing client.
  • It works offline-first, and the PWA topic indicates web-app delivery.
  • It supports GraphQL work, because the topic list includes graphql-client.
  • It stores response history, shown in the README screenshots.
  • It uses environment variables, shown in the README screenshots.
  • It supports plugins, shown in the README screenshots and linked video.

Who uses it and how

  • API developers use it to inspect requests and responses locally.
  • GraphQL developers use it as a testing client for GraphQL APIs, based on the graphql-client topic.
  • Desktop users install it through Homebrew, snap, scoop, or precompiled RPM, DEB, and NuPKG binaries.
  • Self-hosters run the web app with Docker or docker compose, using flawiddsouza/restfox:0.40.0 on port 4004.
  • Maintainers compile UI, desktop, and web-standalone packages with npm run build, npm run build-desktop, and npm run build-web-standalone.

Getting started

Users can open https://restfox.dev, install a desktop package, or run flawiddsouza/restfox:0.40.0 on port 4004. The web-standalone build starts with npm start on port 4004, and PORT=5040 npm start changes the port.

When to use it — and when not to

Use Restfox for local, offline-first HTTP, REST, socket, or GraphQL testing with environment variables, response history, and plugins. Do not choose it if a required feature is absent from the README or topics, because the project is described as minimalistic and the provided facts do not list team services, hosted collaboration, databases, or SMTP. Self-hosting the web build means operating the web-standalone npm start process or Docker container, including version selection and port management.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Restfox

Restfox

Web App | Install | Releases/Downloads | Screenshots | Docs | Compiling | Compiling Web Standalone

Offline-First Minimalistic HTTP & Socket Testing Client for the Web & Desktop

Watch video to see plugins in action:

Installation

macOS

Package available in homebrew by using:

brew install restfox

Ubuntu and other distributions supporting snap

Package available through snap can be installed using:

sudo snap install restfox

RPM, DEB and NuPKG

There are precompiled binaries in the releases page.

Windows

scoop bucket add extras
scoop install restfox

There are also precompiled binaries in the releases page.

Docker

docker run --name Restfox -d -p 4004:4004 flawiddsouza/restfox:0.40.0

Start webapp using docker compose

docker-compose up -d

Start webapp using docker compose with custom port

docker-compose -p 5000:4004 up -d

Start webapp using docker compose with different version

RESTFOX_VERSION=0.40.0 docker-compose up -d

Screenshots

Response History

Context Menu

Environment Variables

Plugins

Compiling

ui

Development

npm run dev

Distribution

npm run build

Desktop distribution and development

npm run build-desktop

Web Standalone distribution and development

npm run build-web-standalone

To upgrade codemirror to latest version

npm i @codemirror/autocomplete@latest @codemirror/commands@latest @codemirror/lang-javascript@latest @codemirror/lang-json@latest @codemirror/language@latest @codemirror/search@latest @codemirror/state@latest @codemirror/view@latest

electron

To upgrade electron to latest version

npm install --save-dev electron@latest @electron-forge/cli@latest @electron-forge/maker-deb@latest @electron-forge/maker-rpm@latest @electron-forge/maker-squirrel@latest @electron-forge/maker-zip@latest @electron-forge/maker-flatpak@latest @electron-forge/publisher-github@latest electron-builder@latest

Development

npm run start

Distribution

npm run make

or

npm run publish

Development

npm run dev

Distribution

npm run build

Using web-standalone

git clone https://github.com/flawiddsouza/Restfox
cd Restfox/packages/ui
npm i
npm run build-web-standalone
cd ../web-standalone
npm i
npm start

By default npm start will run Restfox at port 4004. You can override the port by passing port like so PORT=5040 npm start.

Docker Build Instructions

First refer to Compiling Web Standalone to build successfully locally and use it normally. Then in the project root directory (directory with Dockerfile), execute:

docker build -t restfox:xx .

Note: xx is the version number

After the build is complete, use the following command to start the service:

docker run -d -p:4004:4004 restfox:xx

Visit after successful startup: localhost:4004

Alternatively, you can also use the pre-built Docker image available on Docker Hub. See: Docker.

Frequently asked questions

Is Restfox free to use?

Restfox is open source under the MIT licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does Restfox do?

Offline-First Minimalistic HTTP & Socket Testing Client for the Web & Desktop

What is Restfox written in?

Restfox is primarily written in Vue. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/flawiddsouza/Restfox, and it has 2,758 GitHub stars.