{"slug": "bruno", "name": "Bruno", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 7, "warners": 3, "score": -0.456, "rising": -0.65, "first": "2025-12-22", "latest": "2026-10-31", "why": "The biggest benefit for me was having requests stored as plaintext files, so you can easily track it with git.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 3}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "The biggest benefit for me was having requests stored as plaintext files, so you can easily track it with git.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/usebruno/bruno", "official_url": "https://github.com/usebruno/bruno", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Bruno"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 751125104, "item_id": 46945319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945319", "by": "JLCarveth", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The biggest benefit for me was having requests stored as plaintext files, so you can easily track it with git.", "excerpt": "Long ago I switched to Bruno [1] The biggest benefit for me was having requests stored as plaintext files, so you can easily track it with git. [1] https://www.usebruno.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "API client", "switched_from": "Postman", "story": "SHOW HN: Postman removes free team collaboration (small teams capped at 1 user)"}, {"id": 741662208, "item_id": 46353888, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46353888", "by": "allenleee", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "have you tried this one", "excerpt": "have you tried this one: https://github.com/usebruno/bruno", "context": "", "use_case": "API client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 805103027, "item_id": 50318939, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50318939", "by": "pull_my_finger", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "postman, insomnia, bruno all followed the same free -> freemium bait and switch", "excerpt": "Absolutely unwarranted gatekeeping and bashing in this thread for the most benign reason. I think it looks neat. The API client space definitely needs some new FOSS entries after postman, insomnia, bruno all followed the same free -> freemium bait and switch way too common in dev tooling. Paywalling features that are already or previously implemented is a gross move, and feels especially egregious in the tooling spac", "context": "", "use_case": "API client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Ghostman \u2013 A fast, keyboard-driven TUI API client and webhook inspector"}, {"id": 753779043, "item_id": 47111190, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47111190", "by": "skaluvuri", "date": "2026-02-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "even bruno to some extent is forced to find a viable monetization strategy", "excerpt": "I agree that AI has dramatically lowered the cost of production and it becomes super easy for small teams to spin up \u201cgood enough\u201d systems for API testing, documentation, compliance, or cost monitoring. But where things are still hard is maintaining that tool, security, reliability, UX, integrations, and long-term tool evolution - especially when its not core to their business. Those don\u2019t disappear just because the ", "context": "", "use_case": "API testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The API Tooling Crisis"}, {"id": 741676577, "item_id": 46354786, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46354786", "by": "dhruv3006", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Still bloated", "excerpt": "Still bloated i myself am working on https://voiden.md", "context": "", "use_case": "API client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["api client", "api debugging", "api testing"], "compared": [{"slug": "postman", "name": "Postman", "co": 7, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "voiden", "name": "Voiden", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46345827", "title": "Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50300902", "title": "Show HN: Ghostman \u2013 A fast, keyboard-driven TUI API client and webhook inspector", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49363159", "title": "Show HN: Helena \u2013 API client with no Electron and no accounts, in Go+Fyne", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47792380", "title": "The API Tooling Crisis: Why developers are abandoning Postman and its clones?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47110542", "title": "The API Tooling Crisis", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46942116", "title": "SHOW HN: Postman removes free team collaboration (small teams capped at 1 user)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"warn": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 805103027, "item_id": 50318939, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50318939", "by": "pull_my_finger", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "postman, insomnia, bruno all followed the same free -> freemium bait and switch", "excerpt": "Absolutely unwarranted gatekeeping and bashing in this thread for the most benign reason. I think it looks neat. The API client space definitely needs some new FOSS entries after postman, insomnia, bruno all followed the same free -> freemium bait and switch way too common in dev tooling. Paywalling features that are already or previously implemented is a gross move, and feels especially egregious in the tooling spac", "context": "", "use_case": "API client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Ghostman \u2013 A fast, keyboard-driven TUI API client and webhook inspector"}, {"id": 789811218, "item_id": 49363201, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49363201", "by": "bpacholek", "date": "2026-08-19", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "heavily inspired by Bruno", "excerpt": "Hello Hackers! I'm Bartosz, a dev from Poland. Helena is an API client I built because I wanted something Postman-shaped that is a single native binary: no Electron, no account, no telemetry, collections stored as plain YAML you can commit to git, heavily inspired by Bruno. A few things I think are interesting technically: * It's Go + Fyne, rendered via OpenGL. One ~35 MB self-contained binary per platform. * Collect", "context": "", "use_case": "API client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Helena \u2013 API client with no Electron and no accounts, in Go+Fyne"}, {"id": 764683569, "item_id": 47792723, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47792723", "by": "Leomuck", "date": "2026-04-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Bruno, I use ApiDog, but they feel a little cumbersome at times. Good enough, but not great.", "excerpt": "Enshittification at its best. I used Postman for several years before it become unusable for me. Didn't actually think too much about it, tried several alternatives (ApiDog, Bruno), but none came to the comfort Postman gave me before that. Now I understand if engineers spend lots of time on software, somehow they need to get paid. But I still believe, there is a more authentic and acceptable path than what most compa", "context": "", "use_case": "API debugging", "switched_from": "Postman", "story": "The API Tooling Crisis: Why developers are abandoning Postman and its clones?"}, {"id": 753779043, "item_id": 47111190, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47111190", "by": "skaluvuri", "date": "2026-02-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "even bruno to some extent is forced to find a viable monetization strategy", "excerpt": "I agree that AI has dramatically lowered the cost of production and it becomes super easy for small teams to spin up \u201cgood enough\u201d systems for API testing, documentation, compliance, or cost monitoring. But where things are still hard is maintaining that tool, security, reliability, UX, integrations, and long-term tool evolution - especially when its not core to their business. Those don\u2019t disappear just because the ", "context": "", "use_case": "API testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The API Tooling Crisis"}, {"id": 751125104, "item_id": 46945319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945319", "by": "JLCarveth", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The biggest benefit for me was having requests stored as plaintext files, so you can easily track it with git.", "excerpt": "Long ago I switched to Bruno [1] The biggest benefit for me was having requests stored as plaintext files, so you can easily track it with git. [1] https://www.usebruno.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "API client", "switched_from": "Postman", "story": "SHOW HN: Postman removes free team collaboration (small teams capped at 1 user)"}, {"id": 741676577, "item_id": 46354786, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46354786", "by": "dhruv3006", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Still bloated", "excerpt": "Still bloated i myself am working on https://voiden.md", "context": "", "use_case": "API client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?"}, {"id": 741662208, "item_id": 46353888, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46353888", "by": "allenleee", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "have you tried this one", "excerpt": "have you tried this one: https://github.com/usebruno/bruno", "context": "", "use_case": "API client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?"}]}