Requestly API Client: a privacy-first Postman alternative with Git sync

What requestly/requestly actually is, and what it is not

The name is misleading in a useful way. This repository is not the API client. The README states plainly that the Requestly API Client application is closed-source, and that this repo exists as a community hub: bug reports, feature requests, questions, and the roadmap. The top-level entries confirm it. You find CONTRIBUTING.md, CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md, community-guidelines.md, issue templates under .github/, and an assets/ folder. There is no application source tree.

That matters before you clone anything. The product the README describes is a desktop API client for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows and Linux, distributed as downloads from get.requestly.com. The repository you are looking at is where you argue about it. If you arrived expecting to read the request engine, you will not find it. If you arrived to file a bug that survives longer than a support ticket, this is the right address.

The README also draws a boundary that trips people up: issues about the HTTP Interceptor, the browser extension and web app, belong at requestly/interceptor. The README warns that misfiled issues will be redirected there. The ecosystem table lists four other repositories besides the interceptor: http-interceptor-desktop-app, mcp, requestly-web-sdk, and requestly-automation for Cypress, Selenium and Playwright integrations. Knowing which repo owns your problem is half the work of getting it fixed.

How Git sync and local workspaces change the data flow

The design claim is that collections are files, not rows in someone else's database. The README lists three storage postures: local workspaces, where it says everything is private with no cloud storage and secure local files; team sync through Team Projects; and self-hosting for what it calls enterprise-grade security. Git Sync is the mechanism it names for keeping API collections in sync with a Git repository and collaborating through Git.

The practical consequence is that review moves to the pull request. A changed endpoint, a new environment variable, a renamed collection: all of it becomes a diff a teammate can comment on, and history is whatever your Git host keeps. That is a different workflow from a shared cloud workspace, where changes appear live and the audit trail is the vendor's activity log. Neither is universally better. Git sync gives you review and rollback through Git itself; it also means merge conflicts are now a thing that happens to your API collections, and the README does not document how the client resolves them.

Local workspaces carry the same trade-off in sharper form. Files you control are files you can lose, back up, or accidentally commit with a token inside. The README's privacy framing is accurate as far as it goes, but privacy and safety are not the same property, and the documentation does not describe secret handling for local or Git-backed collections.

Installing Requestly API Client and making a first request

There is no package manager step. The README gives a download table with one link per platform, so you fetch a build and run it. On macOS you pick Apple Silicon or Intel; there are separate links for Windows and Linux.

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
# https://get.requestly.com/api-client-macos-arm

# macOS (Intel)
# https://get.requestly.com/api-client-macos-intel

# Windows
# https://get.requestly.com/api-client-windows

# Linux
# https://get.requestly.com/api-client-linux

After install, the README's feature table describes the REST API Playground as the place to save all your APIs and test them whenever you need. The first real use is a saved request. Create a collection, add a request, and send it. If you already have collections elsewhere, the Easy Import/Export row says you can import and export API contracts from cURL, Postman and OpenAPI, which is the shortest path to a meaningful first session rather than rebuilding everything by hand. The README does not spell out the exact menu path for the import.

For GraphQL, the README says the client supports schema introspection and auto-completion, so pointing it at a schema endpoint is the second thing worth trying. Pre and post scripts are where the client diverges from a plain request runner: scripts adjust requests before they are sent and process responses once received.

Where the closed-source client and thin docs bite

The hardest limitation is structural. The application is proprietary. The AGPLv3 licence covers this repository, and the README is explicit that the API Client application is not covered by it and is governed by product terms at requestly.com/terms. If your organisation requires source access for security review, or if you want to patch a bug yourself rather than wait, this is the wrong tool. No amount of community activity in the issue tracker changes that.

The second gap is documentation depth in this repository. The README is a marketing surface with a feature table, not a manual. It does not document rollback for Git-synced collections, conflict resolution, secret storage, or the exact import syntax for each supported format. The docs live at docs.requestly.com/api-client, and everything operational has to be checked there. Anyone evaluating the client from this repo alone will overestimate how much is specified.

The third is scope confusion. Because the repository name matches the product name, people file interceptor bugs here and get redirected. The README states that the interceptor code moved to requestly/interceptor and continues to be maintained there, which is a reasonable split but adds a step for anyone who bookmarked the old URL.

Requestly vs Postman, Bruno and Insomnia: the actual difference

The README positions the product directly against Postman and claims a one-click switch, which is a migration claim rather than an architectural one. The architectural difference is storage. Requestly's pitch is that you choose where collections live: local files, a Git repository, a self-hosted deployment, or team sync. A cloud-first client makes the hosted workspace the default and everything else an export.

Against Bruno, the closest comparison in spirit, the split is openness rather than storage model. Bruno is an open-source client; Requestly API Client is closed-source with an open community hub. If licence and source access drive your decision, that difference settles it before features enter the conversation.

Against Insomnia, the distinction is the same storage argument plus pricing structure. The README advertises flat pricing, free for up to 10 collaborators, with Team and Enterprise tiers adding SSO, SAML, audit logs and on-prem deployment. It does not list per-seat numbers for the paid tiers, so cost comparisons have to be run against requestly.com/pricing rather than this repository. Note also that Requestly spans two products with different licences. The HTTP Interceptor is open source; the API Client is not. Comparisons that treat Requestly as one open-source tool are comparing the wrong half.

Maintenance, releases and what upgrading costs you

Activity here is recent. The last push to this repository was on 2026-09-10, and the release list shows changelog entries dated 2026-03-23, 2026-03-16 and 2026-03-09. The changelog naming suggests a weekly cadence in that period, though the gap between March and September is not explained by anything the README states, so do not read the release list as a promise of continuous shipping.

Upgrade cost depends on which surface you are on. The desktop client is a downloaded binary, so upgrades are whatever the vendor's update mechanism does; this repository does not describe it. Git-synced collections are files in your own repository, so an upgrade that changes the collection format would surface as a diff you can review before committing, which is the Git-sync design working in your favour.

On licensing: this repository is AGPLv3, and the README states that third-party components keep their original licences. The application itself is proprietary and governed by separate product terms. That combination is normal for a community hub around a commercial product, but it means the licence file here tells you nothing about your rights to the client. Read the product terms. This is a description of what the repository says, not legal advice.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt Requestly API Client if your team already lives in Git and wants REST, GraphQL and WebSocket testing without routing collections through a vendor cloud; the README's local workspaces and Git sync are the reasons to look. Do not adopt it if you need to audit or fork the client itself, because the application is closed-source and only the community hub is public here. Before committing, verify three things: that the Git sync flow matches how your team branches and reviews, that the free tier's 10-collaborator limit fits your headcount, and that a cURL, Postman or OpenAPI export round-trips your existing collections without loss.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. Project website
3. README
4. Releases
5. requestly/requestly on GitHub