We’re reviewing our API testing workflow and are considering moving away from GUI-based tools for day-to-day testing.
The main reason is that more of our development process now runs inside CI/CD pipelines, so we’d like our API tests to be just as easy to automate as our unit and integration tests.
Our ideal CLI tool would support:
- Running API tests from the terminal
- Multiple environments
- OpenAPI-based projects
- CI/CD integration
- Clear reporting and reliable exit codes
So far, we’ve looked at tools like curl, HTTPie, Hurl, Newman, and Apidog CLI. Each seems to have different strengths depending on the workflow.
For those managing APIs regularly:
- Which CLI tool do you rely on the most?
- Do you keep both a GUI and a CLI tool, or have you switched entirely to a CLI-first workflow?
- Has moving API testing into your build pipeline improved your development process?
I’d really appreciate hearing what has worked well for other developers before we standardize on a solution.