Getting started

Porticol is a desktop app for sending, testing and sharing API requests. It works with no account and no network connection: what you make stays on your computer until you sign in to share it.

Install

Download the app for macOS, Windows or Linux from the download page. Porticol checks for a new version when it starts and once a day, and asks before it installs one.

The first launch

The first time Porticol opens, it offers two ways to start:

A tour of five steps follows: the sidebar, a request, Send, the response and the runner. You can skip it at any step.

Send a request

Shortcuts here use Mod, which is Command on macOS and Ctrl on Windows and Linux.

  1. Press Mod+T, or choose New request in the command palette. A request opens in a new tab.
  2. Type a URL, such as https://httpbin.org/get, and choose the method beside it.
  3. Press Mod+Enter to send it.

The response appears beside the request. The workbench describes what it shows.

Save it in a collection

A collection holds folders and requests. Press Mod+S, or choose Save in the palette. A request that isn't in a collection yet asks for a name and the collection to save it in, or the name of a new one. To make an empty collection first, press Mod+N or choose New collection….

A tab with unsaved edits asks before it closes. Press Mod+W, or choose Close tab, to close the tab you are in.

The command palette

Press Mod+K to open the command palette. Type to search requests, collections, environments and history, or the name of a command. A first character narrows the search to one kind:

Type To search
> Commands
/ Requests
@ Environments
# History

Tab moves from one kind to the next. Mod+P opens the palette on requests alone, to go to a request by name. Requests are found by name, URL, body and scripts, and history by URL.

Every command in the palette is described in these pages. Open settings, or Mod+comma, opens Settings.

Where to go next