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The recording proxy captures HTTP requests and responses flowing through it, then exports them as .http files. It is a fast way to bootstrap tests from existing API traffic.

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How It Works

  1. Start the proxy pointing at your target server
  2. Send requests through the proxy (manually or from your app)
  3. Stop the proxy (Ctrl+C)
  4. hitspec exports all captured traffic as a .http file

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Quick Start

# Start recording proxy
hitspec record --port 8080 --target https://api.example.com

# In another terminal, send requests through the proxy
curl http://localhost:8080/users
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/users -d '{"name":"John"}'

# Press Ctrl+C to stop and export

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Flags

FlagShortDescriptionDefault
--port-pPort to run the proxy on8080
--target-tTarget URL to proxy to (required)
--output-oOutput file path (default: stdout)
--excludePaths to exclude (comma-separated)
--verbose-vEnable verbose loggingfalse
--dedupeSkip duplicate requests (same method+path)false
--jsonExport as JSON instead of .http formatfalse

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Examples

hitspec record --target https://api.example.com -o recorded.http

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What Gets Recorded

The proxy captures:
  • HTTP method and URL
  • Request headers
  • Request body
  • Response status code

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What Gets Sanitized

The proxy automatically sanitizes sensitive headers in the output:
  • Authorization headers are replaced with placeholders
  • Cookie headers are replaced with placeholders
  • Other sensitive headers are cleaned

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Output Format

The exported .http file follows standard hitspec format: 
### GET /users
# @name get_users

GET https://api.example.com/users
Accept: application/json

>>>
expect status == 200
<<<

### POST /users
# @name post_users

POST https://api.example.com/users
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "John"
}

>>>
expect status == 200
<<<
After recording, edit the generated file to add meaningful assertions, replace hardcoded values with variables, and add @depends directives for request ordering.