500MB for HTTP requests
Postman ships Electron + Chromium to send a GET request. Your terminal can do it in 4MB.
Forced accounts & cloud sync
Your API keys shouldn't require a login. Work offline. Own your data.
Binary blobs in git
JSON collections don't diff, don't merge, and break in code review.
Separate test tooling
Newman, pytest, shell scripts. Why isn't testing built into the request file?
Offline-First
No account. No cloud sync. No login wall. Just works.
Git-Native
Plain text .volt files diff, merge, and review in PRs.
Single Binary
~4MB. No Electron, no Node, no Python. Copy and go.
Zero Telemetry
Your keys never leave your machine. E2E encrypted secrets.
Built-In Testing
Assertions in .volt files. JUnit/HTML reports. No Newman.
9 Protocols
HTTP/1-3, GraphQL, WebSocket, SSE, MQTT, Socket.IO, gRPC.
Export to 18 Languages
Python, JS, Go, Rust, Java, C#, Swift, Kotlin, and more.
Import from Anything
Postman, Insomnia, OpenAPI, cURL, HAR. One command.
8+ Auth Methods
Bearer, Basic, OAuth 2.0 PKCE, AWS SigV4, Hawk, Digest.
CLI + TUI + Web UI
Three interfaces, one binary. PWA-enabled web UI.
LOADED — 9 protocol handlers identified — Postman supports 3
HTTP/1.1 STABLEOK
HTTP/2 BETAOK
HTTP/3 (QUIC) STABLEOK
GraphQL STABLEOK
WebSocket STABLEOK
SSE STABLEOK
MQTT BETAOK
Socket.IO BETAOK
gRPC BETAOK
# Plain text. Human readable. Git diffable.name: Create Usermethod: POSTurl: https://{{host}}/api/usersheaders: - Content-Type: application/json - X-Request-ID: {{$uuid}}auth: type: bearer token: {{$api_token}}body_type: jsonbody: | { "name": "{{username}}", "email": "{{$randomEmail}}" }tests: - status equals 201 - $.id exists - $.name equals {{username}}post_script: | extract user_id $.id
volt run
Press run to execute
| Feature | Volt | curl | HTTPie | Bruno | Insomnia | Postman |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Install size | ~4 MB | ~300KB | ~30 MB | ~150 MB | ~470 MB | ~500 MB |
| Startup | <10ms | ~46ms | ~500ms | ~800ms | ~2-4s | ~3-8s |
| RAM (idle) | ~5 MB | ~3 MB | ~30 MB | ~150 MB | ~400 MB | ~800 MB |
| Dependencies | 0 | libcurl | Python | Electron | Electron | Electron |
| Account needed | No | No | No | No | Optional | Yes |
| Works offline | Always | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Requires login |
| Git-native | Yes | N/A | N/A | Yes | No | No |
| Built-in tests | Yes | No | No | No | No | Separate |
| CI/CD ready | Copy 1 file | N/A | pip | npm | npm | npm |
| Data format | Plain text | N/A | N/A | JSON | JSON+DB | JSON(cloud) |
| Code export | 18 langs | N/A | N/A | No | Limited | Limited |
| Protocols | 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
Drop Postman. Ship faster.
Install in 2 seconds. Import your Postman collections in 1 command.
$ curl -fsSL https://volt-api.dev/install.sh | bash
Then: volt import postman collection.json → done.
Linux · macOS · Windows · ~4MB · MIT Licensed
"Finally an API client that feels like tooling, not a product funnel. Plain text files, git-friendly, no account required."
— Backend Engineer, privacy-first team"We replaced a 500MB Electron app with a 4MB binary. CI runs 3x faster and we actually commit our API tests now."
— DevOps Lead, fintech startup"The .volt file format clicked instantly. My team went from Postman exports nobody reads to version-controlled API specs in a day."
— Engineering Manager, SaaS platform