What is HTTP Inspector?
HTTP Inspector parses raw HTTP requests and responses into structured, readable components. When debugging network issues, developers frequently copy raw HTTP traffic from proxy tools, server logs, or browser dev tools. This tool takes that raw text and breaks it down into method, URL, status code, headers, and body.
For HTTP requests, the tool also generates a curl command that replays the exact request, making it easy to reproduce issues or share reproducible test cases with teammates. Body content is auto-detected and pretty-printed when it contains JSON, XML, or URL-encoded form data.
How to Use HTTP Inspector
Paste a raw HTTP request (starting with a method like GET /path HTTP/1.1) or response (starting with HTTP/1.1 200 OK) into the input editor. The tool parses the start line, headers, and body into a structured view.
Headers are displayed in a clean list with names and values separated. The body section attempts to detect the content type and pretty-print it accordingly. For requests, toggle the curl generator to produce a command you can paste directly into a terminal.
Common Use Cases
- Proxy log analysis: Parse raw HTTP traffic captured by mitmproxy, Charles, or Fiddler to inspect specific request-response pairs.
- API debugging: Inspect raw HTTP requests and responses from server logs to understand what your client or server actually sent and received.
- curl generation: Convert raw requests from logs into executable curl commands for reproducing issues in different environments.
- Header inspection: Quickly review HTTP headers for security issues, caching behavior, CORS configuration, or content negotiation.
- Team collaboration: Share parsed, readable HTTP traffic with teammates instead of raw text blobs when discussing API issues.