4 ms·

Show HN: Voiden – an offline, Git-native API tool built around Markdown

48 points by dhruv3006 9mo ago

Hi HN, We have open-sourced Voiden. Most API tools are built like platforms. They are heavy because they optimize for accounts, sync, and abstraction - not for simple, local API work. Voiden treats API tooling as files. It’s an offline-first, Git-native API tool built on Markdown, where specs, tests, and docs live together as executable Markdown in your repo. Git is the source of truth. No cloud. No syncing. No accounts. No telemetry.Just Markdown, Git, hotkeys, and your damn specs. Voiden is extensible via plugins (including gRPC and WSS). Repo: https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden Download Voiden here : https://voiden.md/download https://voiden.md/download We'd love feedback from folks tired of overcomplicated and bloated API tooling !

dhruv3006 9mo ago
Previously on Show HN : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44115467 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44115467
- GlacierFox 9mo ago
  *before it was open sourced.
fastball 9mo ago
I tried Voiden and like the idea, but in the end I think the notebook format felt a bit too freeform for an API tool. To me the point of an API tool is clarity of what I am doing and how they translates into code. On a product note, I don't think the logo matches the name at all.
- nikolasdimi 9mo ago
  thanks for the points- on the product comment: in what way you think it doesn't fit? genuinely interested.
  - embedding-shape 9mo ago
    Not parent, but the name makes me think of void, so nothing, while the logo is a infinity symbol, so everything, seems like opposites :)
    - nikolasdimi 9mo ago
      well void is also the blank slate in the sense that Voiden is a tool without rules - without explicit directions to the users on how they should do xyz. So yeah, our inspiration comes from an empty sheet, a blank slate to work with APIs. And if there are no restrictions then there are infinite opportunities. :) thts how it makes sense to us.
  - fastball 9mo ago
    I suppose part of the problem is that I don't understand why "Voiden" in the first place, but if we assume Voiden is a good name: The logo neither says "voids" nor "API tool". It is a blocky infinity symbol that to me means nothing in-context. Also the duotone and slight asymmetry (of a normally symmetric symbol) gives hints of duality/gemini, which also means nothing to me in the context of what the tool is and the name that it has.
- GlacierFox 9mo ago
  That why I love the git-backed notebook format. You can add clarity and explain what it's doing and how it translates into code.
  - dhruv3006 9mo ago
    Thank you! Anything we can do better ?
- p0w3n3d 9mo ago
  There is also https://insomnia.rest/ https://insomnia.rest/
  - AxiomPraxis 9mo ago
    The guy who wrote Insomnia sold it - https://yaak.app/blog/yet-another-api-client https://yaak.app/blog/yet-another-api-client and ended up writing a new one, https://yaak.app/ https://yaak.app/
VeryVito 9mo ago
I read over this post before submitting and realize it sounds like I'm shilling here, but bear with me: I just REALLY like what Voiden is doing here, and I'm thrilled to see it open-sourced now. Every other API-testing tool seems to have evolved into a bloated, cloud-first, subscription-based "service" (Yes, I'm looking at you, Postman, Paw/RapidAPI, etc), and I'd been looking for just this type of thing when I stumbled across this project a few months ago. Finally, somebody gets it! It works different, and it may still have a few rough edges, but now every developer with access to our projects has access to the relevant APIs and instructions on how best to use them -- while the credentials remain safely off the cloud and on their own machines. It's been exhilarating to finally have full testing and documentation right in our code bases, and the fact that it's now open source means our team can fully embrace Voiden without fear of once again having the rug pulled out from under its feet. Thanks for going this route! I predict Voiden is going to be the sleeper hit for developers this year.
- dhruv3006 9mo ago
  Thank you for the kind words!
- unkn0wn_root 9mo ago
  If you want to give a try yet-another-api-client tool with kind of different approach - give Resterm a try. https://github.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm https://github.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm
  - VeryVito 9mo ago
    Thanks! I have to admit that I wasn't able to make heads nor tails of Resterm. It may be above my pay grade. I'm all for more text-based API docs tools, though, and from the README, Resterm does look well thought out and certainly capable! But it gave me flashbacks to my first days trying to learn Emacs.
  - literallyroy 9mo ago
    On a big TUI kick recently and that looks incredible! Good stuff
hypeatei 9mo ago
I hate to be negative but everything about this is ringing alarm bells. The buzzwords like "git-native" and "offline-first", the dedicated editor for a supposedly "text based" tool, the website that feels like it's trying to sell me something with testimonials but no pricing page, the apparent astroturfing going on in this thread, the logo which appears to be essentially stolen from Visual Studio (look up logos from older versions), and the AI-slop vibes (especially the art on your blog) Overall, it appears this tool is in the same space as Postman, Insomina, etc. which has been plagued with rug-pulls and everything I've seen says it's likely to happen here too.
- VeryVito 9mo ago
  > Overall, it appears this tool is in the same space as Postman, Insomina, etc. which has been plagued with rug-pulls and everything I've seen says it's likely to happen here too. How so? Even without the tool itself, you've still got a collection of useful markdown files that perfectly describe your APIS. They're not magic nor proprietary, and now this tool makes them even more useful: If the developers are trying to rip anybody off, they're doing a terrible job. This tool is for those who DON'T want to be locked into yet another cloud service: Its power lies in the formatted Markdown files which can be thought of us as a collection of souped-up `curl` statements that you may already be collecting anyway. This just lets you use them without copying and pasting them into yet another proprietary tool or platform -- and now that it's open-sourced, perhaps we'll see its magic spread to other tools, too. This format-over-product concept is ideal for development teams that already keep their projects in git repositories. By open-sourcing the project, the creators have made the rug-pull scenario all but impossible (which is the point of today's announcement, I think). Regardless, it's in the wild now, and there's no pricing page because the tool is free and open source.
  - hypeatei 9mo ago
    Just because something is open source doesn't make rug pulling "impossible"; see: insomnia and license-change rug pulls across various OSS communities. > there's no pricing page because the tool is free and open source. Okay, then why is there a "Product" item at the top and a "real talk" (testimonials) page that has "featured" posts? It seems like the creators had something else in mind when creating this tool and it wasn't an altruistic open source tool.
philipwhiuk 9mo ago
When you say API do you mean REST API?
- dhruv3006 9mo ago
  We support GRPC,WSS and GraphQL via plugins too!
K3UL 9mo ago
So we really don't talk about Bruno then?
- nikolasdimi 9mo ago
  :)

48 points by dhruv3006 9mo ago

dhruv3006 9mo ago

Previously on Show HN : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44115467 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44115467

GlacierFox 9mo ago
*before it was open sourced.

fastball 9mo ago

I tried Voiden and like the idea, but in the end I think the notebook format felt a bit too freeform for an API tool. To me the point of an API tool is clarity of what I am doing and how they translates into code. On a product note, I don't think the logo matches the name at all.

nikolasdimi 9mo ago
thanks for the points- on the product comment: in what way you think it doesn't fit? genuinely interested.
- embedding-shape 9mo ago
  Not parent, but the name makes me think of void, so nothing, while the logo is a infinity symbol, so everything, seems like opposites :)
  - nikolasdimi 9mo ago
    well void is also the blank slate in the sense that Voiden is a tool without rules - without explicit directions to the users on how they should do xyz. So yeah, our inspiration comes from an empty sheet, a blank slate to work with APIs. And if there are no restrictions then there are infinite opportunities. :) thts how it makes sense to us.
- fastball 9mo ago
  I suppose part of the problem is that I don't understand why "Voiden" in the first place, but if we assume Voiden is a good name: The logo neither says "voids" nor "API tool". It is a blocky infinity symbol that to me means nothing in-context. Also the duotone and slight asymmetry (of a normally symmetric symbol) gives hints of duality/gemini, which also means nothing to me in the context of what the tool is and the name that it has.
GlacierFox 9mo ago
That why I love the git-backed notebook format. You can add clarity and explain what it's doing and how it translates into code.
- dhruv3006 9mo ago
  Thank you! Anything we can do better ?
p0w3n3d 9mo ago
There is also https://insomnia.rest/ https://insomnia.rest/
- AxiomPraxis 9mo ago
  The guy who wrote Insomnia sold it - https://yaak.app/blog/yet-another-api-client https://yaak.app/blog/yet-another-api-client and ended up writing a new one, https://yaak.app/ https://yaak.app/

VeryVito 9mo ago

I read over this post before submitting and realize it sounds like I'm shilling here, but bear with me: I just REALLY like what Voiden is doing here, and I'm thrilled to see it open-sourced now. Every other API-testing tool seems to have evolved into a bloated, cloud-first, subscription-based "service" (Yes, I'm looking at you, Postman, Paw/RapidAPI, etc), and I'd been looking for just this type of thing when I stumbled across this project a few months ago. Finally, somebody gets it! It works different, and it may still have a few rough edges, but now every developer with access to our projects has access to the relevant APIs and instructions on how best to use them -- while the credentials remain safely off the cloud and on their own machines. It's been exhilarating to finally have full testing and documentation right in our code bases, and the fact that it's now open source means our team can fully embrace Voiden without fear of once again having the rug pulled out from under its feet. Thanks for going this route! I predict Voiden is going to be the sleeper hit for developers this year.

dhruv3006 9mo ago
Thank you for the kind words!
unkn0wn_root 9mo ago
If you want to give a try yet-another-api-client tool with kind of different approach - give Resterm a try. https://github.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm https://github.com/unkn0wn-root/resterm
- VeryVito 9mo ago
  Thanks! I have to admit that I wasn't able to make heads nor tails of Resterm. It may be above my pay grade. I'm all for more text-based API docs tools, though, and from the README, Resterm does look well thought out and certainly capable! But it gave me flashbacks to my first days trying to learn Emacs.
- literallyroy 9mo ago
  On a big TUI kick recently and that looks incredible! Good stuff

hypeatei 9mo ago

I hate to be negative but everything about this is ringing alarm bells. The buzzwords like "git-native" and "offline-first", the dedicated editor for a supposedly "text based" tool, the website that feels like it's trying to sell me something with testimonials but no pricing page, the apparent astroturfing going on in this thread, the logo which appears to be essentially stolen from Visual Studio (look up logos from older versions), and the AI-slop vibes (especially the art on your blog) Overall, it appears this tool is in the same space as Postman, Insomina, etc. which has been plagued with rug-pulls and everything I've seen says it's likely to happen here too.

VeryVito 9mo ago
> Overall, it appears this tool is in the same space as Postman, Insomina, etc. which has been plagued with rug-pulls and everything I've seen says it's likely to happen here too. How so? Even without the tool itself, you've still got a collection of useful markdown files that perfectly describe your APIS. They're not magic nor proprietary, and now this tool makes them even more useful: If the developers are trying to rip anybody off, they're doing a terrible job. This tool is for those who DON'T want to be locked into yet another cloud service: Its power lies in the formatted Markdown files which can be thought of us as a collection of souped-up `curl` statements that you may already be collecting anyway. This just lets you use them without copying and pasting them into yet another proprietary tool or platform -- and now that it's open-sourced, perhaps we'll see its magic spread to other tools, too. This format-over-product concept is ideal for development teams that already keep their projects in git repositories. By open-sourcing the project, the creators have made the rug-pull scenario all but impossible (which is the point of today's announcement, I think). Regardless, it's in the wild now, and there's no pricing page because the tool is free and open source.
- hypeatei 9mo ago
  Just because something is open source doesn't make rug pulling "impossible"; see: insomnia and license-change rug pulls across various OSS communities. > there's no pricing page because the tool is free and open source. Okay, then why is there a "Product" item at the top and a "real talk" (testimonials) page that has "featured" posts? It seems like the creators had something else in mind when creating this tool and it wasn't an altruistic open source tool.

philipwhiuk 9mo ago

When you say API do you mean REST API?

dhruv3006 9mo ago
We support GRPC,WSS and GraphQL via plugins too!

K3UL 9mo ago

So we really don't talk about Bruno then?

nikolasdimi 9mo ago
:)