This section describes the HTTP request format. For more information about sending HTTP requests and viewing HTTP responses, refer to HTTP Client.
To compose an HTTP request in the IntelliJ IDEA code editor, use the following general syntax:
Method Request-URI HTTP-Version Header-field: Header-value Request-Body
Within a request, start any line with // or # to make it a comment line.
// A basic request GET http://example.com/a/
To quickly find your request in run/debug configurations, Search Everywhere, and Run Anything, you can give it a name.
Type a name above the request next to ###, # @name, or # @name =.
If a request does not have a name, IntelliJ IDEA will use its position in the request file (such as #1) as the request name. If a request file contains multiple requests with the same name, IntelliJ IDEA will append the request position number to each of the names. This will make each request name unique so that you can easily find the needed one in the Services tool window, run/debug configurations, and so on.
For GET requests, you can omit the request method and only specify the URI.
// A basic request https://example.com/a/
In the Java context, you can use code completion Ctrl+Space to specify URIs based on the defined @Path annotations. Any changes to the @Path annotations in Java code will be reflected in the contents of the suggestion list.
Mark the end of a request by typing the ### separator below it.
// A basic request https://example.com/a/ ###
Compose another request below the separator.
// A basic request https://example.com/a/ ### // A second request using the GET method https://example.com:8080/api/html/get?id=123&value=content
Indent all query string lines but the first one.
// Using line breaks with indent GET http://example.com:8080 /api /html /get ?id=123 &value=content
The indent size for the URL parts is configured in .
If the URL is too long because of the query string, you can use the dedicated context action to put each query parameter on a new line. Place the caret at the query string part, press Alt+Enter (Show Context Actions), and select Put query parameters on separate lines.
GET https://example.com:8080/api/get/html?firstname=John&lastname=Doe&planet=Tatooine&town=Freetown
GET https://example.com:8080/api/get/html? firstname=John& lastname=Doe& planet=Tatooine& town=Freetown
You can enforce the consistent wrapping of query parameters using the HTTP Client code style in .
Similarly, you can format the body in requests with Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded. Place the caret at the body, press Alt+Enter (Show Context Actions), and select Put form-urlencoded parameters on separate lines.
POST https://ijhttp-examples.jetbrains.com/post Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded key1=value1&key2=value2&key3=value3&key4=value4&key5=value5
POST https://ijhttp-examples.jetbrains.com/post Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded key1 = value1 & key2 = value2 & key3 = value3 & key4 = value4 & key5 = value5
To configure wrapping for the x-www-form-urlencoded body, use . To configure spaces before and after = and before &, use .
Depending on the web service you are accessing, provide the basic or digest Authorization header.
// Basic authentication GET http://example.com Authorization: Basic username password ### // Digest authentication GET http://example.com Authorization: Digest username password
Similarly to other HTTP request elements, the provided username and password can be parameterized by means of environment variables.
Inside the request, prepend the request body with a blank line and do one of the following:
Type the request body in place:
// The request body is provided in place POST https://example.com:8080/api/html/post HTTP/1.1 Content-Type: application/json Cookie: key=first-value { "key" : "value", "list": [1, 2, 3] }
If you set the Content-Type header field value to one of the supported languages, then the corresponding language fragment will be auto-injected into the HTTP request message body. If Content-Type is not specified, you can inject a language fragment manually.
In the Java context, you can use code completion Ctrl+Space to specify the Accept header field value based on the defined @Produces annotations. Any changes to the @Produces annotations in Java code will be reflected in the contents of the suggestion list.
To read the request body from a file, type the < symbol followed by the path to the file.
// The request body is read from a file POST https://example.com:8080/api/html/post Content-Type: application/json < ./input.json
Set the request's Content-Type to multipart/form-data. To send a file as part of the multipart/form-data message, include the filename parameter in the Content-Disposition header.
POST https://example.com/api/upload HTTP/1.1 Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=boundary --boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="first"; filename="input.txt" // The 'input.txt' file will be uploaded < ./input.txt --boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="second"; filename="input-second.txt" // A temporary 'input-second.txt' file with the 'Text' content will be created and uploaded Text --boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="third"; // The 'input.txt' file contents will be sent as plain text. < ./input.txt --boundary--
To speed up creating a multipart/form-data request, use the mptr live template.
When an HTTP request is redirected (a 3xx status code is received), the redirected page response is returned. In the Services tool window, you can view the redirected page response as well as all redirections that happened during the request.
You may want to disable following redirects. In this case, the actual redirect response header (such as 301 or 302) is returned.
Before the request, add a comment line with the @no-redirect tag.
// @no-redirect example.com/status/301
If you already have a redirected request, you can click Disable next to the Redirections list in the Services tool window. This will add the @no-redirect tag to the initial request.
If necessary, you can prevent saving a request to the requests history. This can be helpful in case a request contains some sensitive data, and you don't want to log it.
Before the request, add a comment line with the @no-log tag.
// @no-log GET example.com/api
If necessary, you can prevent saving the received cookie to the cookies jar. This way you will avoid removing the unwanted cookies from the http-client.cookies file manually.
Before the request, add a comment line with the @no-cookie-jar tag.
// @no-cookie-jar GET example.com/api
By default, the HTTP client encodes the request parameters and body into an ASCII format. For example, a slash character in your request parameter will be sent as %2F. You can disable encoding to send the request as it is.
Before the request, add a comment line with the @no-auto-encoding tag.
When the tag is used, the request parameters and body are not encoded:
# @no-auto-encoding GET https://examples.com/api? name=@#$somebody& qwerty=%40%23%24
The resulting request will be sent unchanged:
https://examples.com/api?name=@#$somebody&qwerty=%40%23%24
Encoding is enabled by default when the tag is not used.
### Default behavior GET https://examples.com/api? name=@#$somebody& qwerty=%40%23%24
In this request, parameters will be encoded:
https://examples.com/api?name=%40%23%24somebody&qwerty=%40%23%24
The HTTP Client has a timeout of 60 seconds for establishing a connection with a server, and a separate 60 seconds timeout for awaiting new packets in ongoing connections. You can customize both of these timeouts.
To set a timeout for new packets in established connections, add a comment line with the @timeout tag before the request.
# @timeout 600 GET example.com/api
To set a connection timeout, add a comment line with the @connection-timeout tag before the request.
// @connection-timeout 2 m GET example.com/api
By default, the timeout values are in seconds, but you can add an explicit unit of time after the value: ms for milliseconds, s for seconds, m for minutes, for example 100 ms or 5 m.
You can also change these timeouts at the IDE level, using VM options ().
-Didea.connection.timeout configures connection timeout (in milliseconds by default). In individual HTTP requests, the @connection-timeout attribute overrides it.
-Didea.read.timeout configures timeout for new packets (in milliseconds by default). In individual HTTP requests, the @timeout attribute overrides it.
Be aware that VM options impact IntelliJ IDEA behavior across the entire application. These timeouts apply not just to HTTP requests made using the HTTP Client, but also to all HTTP requests that IntelliJ IDEA might send when interacting with the network, such as when accessing an external service.
Handle the responseYou can handle the response using JavaScript. Type the > character after the request and specify the path and name of the JavaScript file or put the response handler script code wrapped in {% ... %}.
GET https://httpbin.org/get > /path/to/responseHandler.js
GET https://httpbin.org/get > {% client.global.set("my_cookie", response.headers.valuesOf("Set-Cookie")[0]); %}
For more information, refer to HTTP Response handling API reference.
Redirect the responseYou can redirect a response to a file. Use >> to create a new file with a suffix if it already exists and >>! to rewrite the file if it exists. You can specify an absolute path or relative to the current HTTP Request file. You can also use variables in paths, including environment variables and the following predefined variables:
{{$projectRoot}} points to the project root directory
{{$historyFolder}} points to .idea/httpRequests/
The following example HTTP request creates myFile.json in myFolder next to the HTTP Request file and redirects the response to it. If the file already exists, it creates myFile-1.json.
POST https://httpbin.org/post Content-Type: application/json { "id": 999, "value": "content" } >> myFolder/myFile.json
The following example HTTP request creates myFile.json in .idea/httpRequests/. If the file already exists, it overwrites the file. It also handles the response with the handler.js script that resides in the project root.
POST https://httpbin.org/post Content-Type: application/json { "id": 999, "value": "content" } > {{$projectRoot}}/handler.js >>! {{$historyFolder}}/myFile.json
For Windows, specify paths with the backslash \.
14 July 2025
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