Which Terminal-Based API Testing Tool Do You Use for Go Services?

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Most of the Go services I build expose REST APIs, so API testing is something I do every day.

For a long time I relied on GUI clients, but as more of our workflow moved into CI/CD, I wanted a terminal-based solution that could be scripted and reused.

The features I was looking for were:

  • Run API tests from the terminal

  • Support multiple environments

  • Integrate with CI/CD

  • Return reliable exit codes

  • Work well with OpenAPI-based APIs

I’ve tried several tools, including curl, HTTPie, Hurl, Newman, and Apidog CLI.

Lately I’ve been using Apidog CLI because I can execute the same API test scenarios locally while developing a Go service and then run those exact tests in GitHub Actions without maintaining separate workflows.

For Go developers, a terminal-first workflow has made API validation much easier to automate.

I’m curious what everyone else is using.

  • Which terminal-based API testing tool do you recommend?

  • Do you rely on httptest alone, or do you also use an external CLI tool for end-to-end API validation?