curlie — The Power of curl, the Ease of HTTPie

What it is

curlie is a thin wrapper around curl written in Go. It translates HTTPie-style command-line arguments into curl calls, combining curl's comprehensive protocol support (HTTP/3, SSH, FTP, GSSAPI) with HTTPie's intuitive syntax for headers, JSON bodies, and query parameters. The output is colored and formatted for readability.

curlie targets developers who like HTTPie's UX but need curl's full feature set. Since curlie delegates to the system's curl binary, every curl feature and flag works transparently.

How it saves time or tokens

curlie eliminates the mental overhead of curl's verbose flag syntax. Posting JSON with curl requires -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{...}'. With curlie, you write curlie POST url key=value. Headers use Header:Value syntax instead of -H 'Header: Value'. The colored, formatted output makes API responses readable without piping through jq.

How to use

1. Install curlie via brew install curlie on macOS or download the binary from GitHub releases.
2. Use HTTPie-style syntax: curlie GET url for requests, key=value for JSON fields, Header:Value for headers.
3. Any curl flag works directly: curlie --http3 url or curlie -k url for insecure connections.

Example

# Simple GET with colored output
curlie example.com/api/users

# POST JSON data (HTTPie syntax)
curlie POST api.example.com/users name=alice role=admin

# Custom headers
curlie GET api.example.com/data Authorization:'Bearer token123'

# Any curl flag works
curlie --http3 example.com
curlie -k https://self-signed.example.com

# Download a file
curlie -o output.json api.example.com/export

Related on TokRepo

• API Tools — API testing and development tools
• Automation Tools — CLI tools for developer workflows

Common pitfalls

• curlie requires curl to be installed on your system. It is a wrapper, not a replacement. The curl version determines which protocols and features are available.
• Some HTTPie syntax differs slightly in curlie. Check the curlie README for edge cases, especially around file uploads and form data.
• Colored output may not render correctly in all terminals or when piping to other commands. Use --plain for plain text output in scripts.