HTTPie Cheat Sheet

Command syntax, headers, auth, and JSON shorthand for making human-friendly HTTP requests from the terminal with HTTPie.

1 PageBeginnerJun 9, 2026

Basic Requests

GET, POST, and method shorthand with HTTPie's simplified syntax.

bash

# GET request, pretty-printed JSON response by defaulthttps httpie.io/hello# POST with JSON body (key=value becomes JSON automatically)http POST api.example.com/orders sku=ABC123 quantity:=2# Explicit methodhttp PUT api.example.com/orders/42 status=shipped

Headers, Auth & Query Params

Common flags for authenticated, parameterized requests.

bash

# Custom header + bearer tokenhttp api.example.com/orders "Authorization:Bearer $TOKEN" "X-Request-Id:abc123"# Basic authhttp -a user:pass api.example.com/secure# Query params (== for query string)http api.example.com/orders status==shipped limit==10# Save response to a file, follow redirectshttp --download --follow api.example.com/export.csv

Item Type Suffixes

The suffix determines how HTTPie encodes each key=value pair.

key=value- string field in JSON body
key:=value- raw JSON value (numbers, booleans, arrays, objects)
key==value- URL query string parameter
key:value- HTTP header
key@file.txt- upload file content as a form field
key=@file.json- read field value from a file's contents

Pro Tip

Use `http --offline` to preview the exact request HTTPie would send (headers, body, URL) without actually making the call — invaluable for debugging complex `:=` JSON payloads before you fire them at a real API.

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