haha the idea comes from the fact that the tool is not opinionated - in the sense that yes its an API client but its also an editor, etc. So it a tool with infinite possibilities and can be as flexible as people want. So this is the idea: void-endlessness-freedom.
If it didn't scare you alot, will you try it? :)
interesting. what is the tool that the company accepts as low risk? Would it be postman or would it be something offline?
oh. whats the security error?
thats awesome - let us know what you think when you try!
Our team lives in Git, our communication is happening on slack, our docs written and maintained on confluence and after some time they always drift away from the actual requests inside Postman.
So we built and open sourced Voiden a few months ago: an API tool where all that: specs, tests, context and docs are always together in the same executable plain text file (markdown). We also made this Git native so that every change is versioned and tracked just like code.
The last change we have made is to add a Runner so that one can run the files directly from the terminal and CI/CD pipelines.
here is the tool: https://voiden.md/download repo: https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden
welcome to try and give feedback!
I am a member of a + 30 people team and most API clients we used felt like they were built for a different job than what we actually did (testing endpoints, maintaining API docs and making sure that new versions of the API matches with out docs). Our team lives in Git, and our docs always drift away from the actual requests inside Postman. The fear I kept hearing when discussing with the team and other devs was "I don't need another bloated API tool".
So we built and open sourced Voiden a few months ago: an offline API tool where requests live as executable markdown and are versioned in Git.
The original idea and inspiration is to combine the flexibility of Obsidian-style files with the simplicity of curl. The result is a tool in which everything can be composed with blocks (endpoint, auth, params, body) that can be added, reused, overridden, and stitched together across executable markdown files.
Results so far: Since open sourcing, we got +12K installs, +1K stars on guthub plus a lot of feedback and contributions.
What it does today:
Looking for feedback and ideas from anyone interested.
Github: https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden
Download: https://voiden.md/download
what do you mean beyond the skill level?
awesome!
depends on the size of your team I guess? Postman used to really be the default API client for serious API testing. https://kaluvuri.com/blog/when-the-category-leader-stalls/
And yes curl is great and is a big inspiration for Voiden. In fact we built it inspired by curl and obsidian.
The problem I see with curl is that real API work is almost never just one request typed into a terminal like some kind of beautifully minimalist Unix haiku. It involves auth, environments, copied headers, reused payload fragments, request chains, documentation, testing, debugging, sharing examples with teammates, reviewing changes in Git, and trying not to break prod because you forgot to swap one token or one base URL.
At that point you can not "just use curl" right?. You use curl plus other things. Curl plus shell scripts, curl plus notes, curl plus env files, plus copied commands from Slack, plus random JSON files, plus tribal knowledge etc etc.. Which is fine I guess but isnt it at some point super annoying and hard to collaborate on? That is the gap that I see this tool (Voiden) trying to solve.
So for me it is not “curl vs Voiden.” curl is a low-level execution tool. Voiden is a workspace for actual API work: writing requests, organizing them, reusing pieces, documenting them, testing them, versioning them in Git, and not duplicating the same headers/body/auth setup 45 times :)
does this resonate?
what do you currently use? what are the limitations of what you tried and were not happy with?
Hey there,
A few months ago we open sourced Voiden, an offline API client we originally built to replace Postman for us internally. Main inspiration was curl and Obsidian (and other plain text editors).
It now has around 11k installs so quite happy with this.
Core principles we built it on:
Since open sourcing, almost everything that we shipped came from actual users, feedback and contributions.
A few examples was building API workflows (multiple requests in the same file, for example for CRUD flows) and scripting (JS/Python/Shell) before and after requests. Also added a “skills” layer so tools like Claude/Codex can operate directly on .void files and request blocks.
Repo: https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden Download: https://voiden.md/download
What I am looking/hoping for:
thanks a million, (this is my first post about this in this sub-lemmy, if you are in other ones you might have seen this already)
cheers,
hey there,
There is always a temptation to add "something AI" in new tools. Especially to tools that are somehow related to developer productivity.
At the same time I wanted to avoid this temptation with Voiden. So there is currently nothing screaming "AI" in it even though I can potentially see many many use cases.
This is also one of the main reasons I think that a plugin architecture is best. What was actually in my mind is that not adding AI is ok for now and the community will start coming up and building AI plugins. For example creating docs from specs and vice versa.
Any other use cases you can think that could be applicable to a tool like this? (Dev Tool with executable markdown files for API specs, tests and docs). The first plugins we shipped were more around methods (grpc, graph ql, web sockets etc etc).
repo: https://github.com/VoidenHQ/feedback
this my take on a matisse painting, that you can find here.
https://www.clickatlife.gr/fu/p/228858/1200/10000/00000000005fd2d3/1/matisse.jpg
I thought of an idea: take your pencil and make your version this :) will be funny to see how different people translate this.
haha