8,100 stars · MIT · v0.26.2 (2026-07-26), confirmed by crates.io · Track this in Scout
Sends web requests from a terminal in short readable commands, and is the maintained way to keep the habit HTTPie invented.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it is
xh is a command-line program, written in Rust, that reimplements most of HTTPie's design with a focus on starting up and running faster. It is one downloaded file with nothing else required.
What it is good for. Anyone who checks a web interface by hand. The specific pain it removes is the shape of a curl command: to send a small piece of JSON you end up with nested quotes, a -H flag for the content type and no colour in the reply. Here the same request is a few words, the JSON is built from key=value pairs, and the answer comes back formatted. Edition 36 found that HTTPie, which invented this style, has taken no new code since 17 December 2024 — twenty-one months — and carries no notice saying so. That makes this the maintained way to keep the habit.
- It is a deliberate drop-in. Rename the binary to
httporhttps, or set theXH_HTTPIE_COMPAT_MODEvariable, and it runs in HTTPie compatibility mode; the README says the only current difference is that--check-statusis off by default. Anxhscommand is also installed, which defaults to HTTPS so you can leave the scheme off. - A plain MIT licence read from
/blob/master/LICENSE, unmodified, "Copyright (c) 2021 Mohamed Daahir". Nothing to agree to and no paid version. - Small and current: 33 open issues against 4 pull requests, release v0.26.2 of 26 July 2026 — the yearless date on GitHub was confirmed against the Rust package index, which timestamps it 2026-07-26 — and the newest code landed on 23 August 2026.
- The README states it plainly: "Not all of HTTPie's features are implemented." If you rely on HTTPie plugins or on one of its less common flags, check before you switch.
- The quickest documented install pipes a script from the internet into a shell. A package manager is the safer route and the project publishes packages for apt, pacman, dnf, Homebrew and others.
- It sends requests and nothing more. It does not record a test, chain one request's answer into the next, or check a result — the three things that turn a manual poke into something a machine can repeat. Edition 36 covered Orange-OpenSource/hurl for exactly that gap.
- httpie/cli
The project that invented this way of writing requests and still the better-known name, with more features and plugins, but its last code landed on 17 December 2024 and nothing on its page says so.
Track this in Scout - rs/curlie
Takes the other route to the same comfort: it is a thin front end over curl itself, so every curl feature is still there, but its own newest code is from 7 December 2025.
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Orange-OpenSource/hurlEdition 36 covered this: requests written in a plain text file with assertions, which is better for repeatable checks and worse for a quick look.
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brew install xh # macOS or Linux with Homebrew cargo install xh --locked # if Rust is installed # apt, dnf, pacman and Scoop packages also exist xh httpbin.org/post name=ada role=engineer xhs example.com/api/status # xhs defaults to HTTPS
