Instead of curl: xh

Why xh is better

• Request bodies are short, so xh post httpbin.org/post name=ahmed age:=24 sends a JSON object without quoting a JSON string.
• Responses are formatted and coloured by default, so JSON is readable without piping through jq.
• It reimplements HTTPie's syntax with faster startup and comes as a single statically linked binary.
• --curl prints the equivalent curl command, so you can try a request in xh and paste the curl version into a script.
• HTTP/2 is supported.

When to keep curl

Keep curl for scripts, CI, Dockerfiles and downloads. curl is installed almost everywhere, speaks far more than HTTP (FTP, SFTP, SMTP, IMAP, MQTT and more), supports HTTP/3, and its library libcurl runs in over twenty billion installations. Its flags are stable across decades.

Switching

Install xh and use it for interactive API calls. Headers are Name:value, string fields are key=value and other JSON types are key:=value. If you know HTTPie, the syntax is the same, and naming the binary http turns on HTTPie compatibility mode.

Watch out

xh is a small volunteer project. Its own README lists not all of HTTPie's features implemented, no plugin system, general immaturity and weaker documentation. Do not use it in shared scripts that teammates or servers may not have installed.

Also worth a look

• HTTPie The original friendly HTTP client that xh copies; pick it if you need its plugins, though its command-line repository has seen little activity recently.

More newer, better command-line tools

• grep →, use ripgrep
• find →, use fd
• cat →, use bat
• ls →, use eza
• cd →, use zoxide
• du →, use dust
• diff →, use delta
• sed →, use sd
• htop →, use btop
• Make →, use just
• man pages →, use tldr pages