postmanlabs/httpbin

★ 13,562PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Inspect HTTP requests
      Return JSON response
      No side effects
    Tech stack
      Python
      Flask
      Docker
    Use cases
      Debug HTTP clients
      Test status codes
      Verify proxy headers
    Audience
      API developers
      Tool builders

mindmap root((repo)) What it does Inspect HTTP requests Return JSON response No side effects Tech stack Python Flask Docker Use cases Debug HTTP clients Test status codes Verify proxy headers Audience API developers Tool builders

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Debug an HTTP client library by sending test requests and seeing the exact headers and body it transmits.

USE CASE 2

Test how your code handles redirects, cookies, and specific HTTP status codes in complete isolation.

USE CASE 3

Run a local httpbin container to mock an HTTP server during development with zero configuration.

USE CASE 4

Verify that a network proxy is correctly forwarding request headers without modifying them.

Tech stack

PythonFlaskDocker

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Requires Docker to run locally, a public instance has historically been available online.

In plain English

Httpbin is a web service that accepts HTTP requests and returns structured responses describing what it received. Developers use it to test HTTP client code, debug how a tool formats its requests, or experiment with specific HTTP behaviors in isolation. The service itself does nothing with the request beyond inspecting it: it reads the headers, query parameters, form data, request body, IP address, and other properties, then returns that information as JSON. There is no database, no authentication, and no side effects. The server is written in Python using Flask, a lightweight web framework. Running it locally takes two commands using Docker: pull the image and start a container on port 80. No configuration files or environment variables are required beyond that. A publicly hosted version of the service has historically been available at httpbin.org, which allows developers to send test requests without running anything locally. This makes it convenient for quick debugging of HTTP client libraries, checking what headers a browser sends, or verifying the behavior of a network proxy. The README is very short, under 700 characters, and lists only the two Docker commands plus links to the live service and two related tools. It does not document the available endpoints. The full set of capabilities, which typically includes routes for testing redirects, cookies, authentication headers, request delays, streaming responses, response compression, and specific HTTP status codes, would need to be discovered by visiting the live site or reading the source code. The project is associated with Postman Labs and was originally created by Kenneth Reitz, who also created the Python Requests library. The README references two related services: requestb.in for inspecting incoming webhooks and grpcb.in for testing gRPC requests.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Run httpbin locally using Docker and show me how to test that my HTTP client is sending the correct Authorization header.

Prompt 2

Using httpbin, write a Python script that sends a POST request with a JSON body and prints the response to confirm what the server received.

Prompt 3

How do I use httpbin endpoints to test that my code correctly handles HTTP 429 rate-limit and 503 error responses?

Prompt 4

Show me how to use httpbin to check what headers my browser or proxy is adding to outgoing requests.

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