If you use httpYac or the IntelliJ .http format, you've probably run into this situation: someone shares a request example in a GitHub issue, a wiki page, or a PR description. To test it, you copy-paste into cURL or open your IDE.
httpOwl eliminates that step. It's a browser extension that detects httpYac-format request blocks on any webpage and lets you run them inline.
How it works
- Open any page containing
.httpformat blocks — GitHub blob views, Confluence docs, internal wikis, raw files - httpOwl auto-detects them and places small pill buttons next to each request
- Click → the request fires through the extension's service worker (no CORS issues)
- Results appear inline: status code, response time, assertion pass/fail
- Click again to open a detail overlay with full request/response headers and body
Features
-
Auto-detection — parses
###-separated blocks from<pre>,<code>,<textarea>elements -
Heading+code strategy — handles Confluence/wikis where
###renders as HTML headings - Inline pill buttons — subtle glass UI with states: idle, running, success, error
-
Assertion engine — evaluates
??lines client-side:status == 200,body.items isArray,header content-type includes json, duration checks, regex, etc. - Detail overlay — full request/response with JSON pretty-printing and copy-as-cURL
- Side panel — request list with HTTP method filtering, multi-select run, environment variables
- HTML report — download a self-contained dark-themed report after running requests
- CORS bypass — fetches originate from the extension, not the page
Variable system
# $shared
API_KEY=abc123
BASE_URL=https://api.example.com
# dev
BASE_URL=https://dev.api.example.com
TOKEN=dev-token
Variables with {{KEY}} syntax are substituted in URL, headers, and body. Requests with unresolved variables are visibly muted and disabled until you define them.
Technical stack
- Manifest V3
- TypeScript + Vite
- Playwright for screenshot/icon generation
- Shadow DOM for UI isolation
Open source
MIT licensed. Contributions welcome.
Chrome Web Store: (Edge support coming soon)
httpOwl Extension
GitHub: https://github.com/ovsec/httpyac-browser
httpYac: https://httpyac.github.io