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Orb

Quick Start

Your First Request

Section titled “Your First Request”

The simplest way to use orb is to pass a URL:

Terminal window
orb https://httpbin.org/get

This makes a GET request and prints the response body to stdout.

Common Operations

Section titled “Common Operations”

GET Request with Headers

Section titled “GET Request with Headers”
Terminal window
orb https://api.example.com/users \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer token123" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

POST with JSON Data

Section titled “POST with JSON Data”

Use the --json flag to send JSON data (automatically sets Content-Type: application/json):

Terminal window
orb https://api.example.com/users \
  -X POST \
  --json '{"name": "Alice", "email": "alice@example.com"}'

POST with Form Data

Section titled “POST with Form Data”
Terminal window
orb https://api.example.com/login \
  -X POST \
  -d "username=alice&password=secret"

File Upload

Section titled “File Upload”

Use -F for multipart form uploads:

Terminal window
orb https://api.example.com/upload \
  -X POST \
  -F "file=@/path/to/image.png" \
  -F "description=My image"

Viewing Response Details

Section titled “Viewing Response Details”

Include Response Headers

Section titled “Include Response Headers”

Use -i to print response headers before the body:

Terminal window
orb -i https://httpbin.org/get

Output:

HTTP/2 200 OK
content-type: application/json
date: Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT


{
  "args": {},
  ...
}

Headers Only

Section titled “Headers Only”

Use -I to only show headers (like a HEAD request):

Terminal window
orb -I https://example.com

Verbose Mode

Section titled “Verbose Mode”

Use -v to see the full request/response exchange:

Terminal window
orb -v https://example.com

This shows:

  • DNS resolution
  • TLS handshake details
  • Request headers sent
  • Response headers received

Authentication

Section titled “Authentication”

Basic Auth

Section titled “Basic Auth”
Terminal window
orb -u username:password https://api.example.com/protected

Bearer Token

Section titled “Bearer Token”
Terminal window
orb --bearer "your-token-here" https://api.example.com/protected

Following Redirects

Section titled “Following Redirects”

By default, orb doesn’t follow redirects. Use -L to follow them:

Terminal window
orb -L https://httpbin.org/redirect/3

Saving Output to a File

Section titled “Saving Output to a File”
Terminal window
orb https://example.com/file.zip -o downloaded.zip

For large downloads, orb automatically shows a progress bar.

WebSocket Connections

Section titled “WebSocket Connections”

Connect to a WebSocket server:

Terminal window
# Send a single message
orb wss://echo.websocket.org --ws-message "Hello!"


# Interactive mode (when TTY is available)
orb wss://echo.websocket.org

HTTP/2 and HTTP/3

Section titled “HTTP/2 and HTTP/3”

Orb automatically negotiates the best protocol. To force a specific version:

Terminal window
# Force HTTP/1.1
orb --http1.1 https://example.com


# Force HTTP/2
orb --http2 https://example.com


# Force HTTP/3 (QUIC)
orb --http3 https://example.com

What’s Next?

Section titled “What’s Next?”