Introducing Rex — A REST API Client in Your Editor
Meet Rex: a full-featured, keyboard-driven API client VS Code extension with collections, environments, auth, scripting, WebSocket support, and code generation — without leaving your editor.
Why a VS Code Extension?
If you already use Rex in Chrome, you know it’s fast, local, and stays out of your way. But sometimes you’re deep in a codebase and switching to the browser just to test an endpoint breaks your flow.
Rex brings the same API client directly into your editor. Open the sidebar, build a request, and send — without leaving the file you’re working on.
What Is Rex?
Rex is a full-featured REST API client built as a VS Code extension. It handles everything you’d expect — request building, collections, environments, authentication, scripting, and code generation — right inside your editor. Supports REST, GraphQL, WebSocket, and Server-Sent Events.
Core Features
Request Builder. A visual editor for HTTP requests with tabbed panels for params, headers, body (JSON, form-data, GraphQL, URL-encoded, raw), auth, and scripts. Paste a cURL command and Rex auto-parses it into a full request.
Collections & Tabs. Save requests into named collections. Work on multiple requests in parallel tabs. Drag and drop to reorder. Everything persists across VS Code sessions via globalState.
Environments & Variables. Define variable sets for dev, staging, and production. Use {{variable}} syntax anywhere — URLs, headers, body, params, auth. Switch environments with one click.
6 Auth Methods. Bearer, Basic, API Key, OAuth 2.0 (authorization code, client credentials, PKCE with automatic token refresh), AWS Signature V4, and Digest — all built in.
Pre-Request & Test Scripts. A JavaScript API for modifying requests before sending and asserting on responses after. Set variables dynamically, extract values from responses, and chain dependent calls with pass/fail reporting.
WebSocket & SSE. Connect to WebSocket endpoints for real-time bidirectional messaging. Stream Server-Sent Events with auto-scroll and payload inspection.
What Else?
- Code generation — Generate working snippets in JavaScript (Node.js), Python, and cURL
- Import & export — Postman collections, OpenAPI/Swagger, HAR, and cURL
- Response rendering — JSON with syntax highlighting, inline HTML preview, image display, PDF viewer, hex dump for binary
- Request chaining — Build sequences of dependent requests with variable extraction, failure handling, and retry logic
- History & diff — Every request logged automatically with full search and side-by-side comparison
- GraphQL — Schema introspection with autocomplete for types, fields, queries, and mutations
- API docs viewer — Load OpenAPI/Swagger specs and browse endpoints with a “Try it” button
VS Code Integration
Rex lives in the activity bar as a sidebar panel. Click the Rex icon or press Cmd+Shift+R to open the API client. The webview uses the same React + Monaco editor stack as the Chrome extension, so the interface is familiar if you’ve used Rex before.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open Rex | Cmd+Shift+R |
| Send request | Cmd+Enter |
| Save request | Cmd+S |
Privacy
Everything stays on your machine. All data is stored in VS Code’s globalState. No accounts, no cloud sync, no telemetry. The extension makes network requests only to the endpoints you specify.
Get Started
Rex is available on the VS Code Marketplace. Install it, open the sidebar, and start building requests.
Learn more: Product page · Documentation