Insomnia Designer

Dev tools

api design editor

SHOW HN2020

317points
83comments
#124of 3,028 in 2020
Top 5%of 2020 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

13 positive, 23 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 9 critical, out of 48 comments about the project. Thread score +0.09.

Execution: 1 for, 6 againstIdea: 5 for, 0 againstDesign: 2 for, 1 againstPerformance: 1 for, 1 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Simple, polished, and a good OpenAPI intro for newcomers

    From 2 comments
    • This is nice. I like how there's a switch that flips between design and testing, and how testing has the familiar insomnia view, with environments. In the design view, I suggest…
      benatkin on HN
    • Wow, big congrats to the folks behind Insomnia. I am amazed at the rate they keep improving it. The tool is ultra polished and the love that goes into it is so clear. If you have…
      kh_hk on HN
  • Keeping it separate from Insomnia Core preserves simplicity

    From 2 comments
    • I had asked a similar question before, and I think this ^ is exactly why they built Designer and Insomnia Core (the original) as separate products. Freedom of choice ftw!
      mikejulietbravo on HN
    • This looks like a good product, and I'm happy to hear the "Core" will remain as a dedicated, simple tool. One minor bit of copyedit help; on the landing page, near the bottom:…
      chrisweekly on HN

Objections

  • Import issues with multi-file or $ref-heavy OpenAPI specs

    From 2 comments
    • Thank you so much for that attitude and I have to add: I'd definetely spend money on a license if there a pro/everyday-user features that make it worth it, while having a free…
      littlecranky67 on HN
    • I put in a Feature Request. Since OpenAPI supports file references, and for any API of substance, you'll probably prefer living with the file broken down into logical sections,…
      neogodless on HN
  • Install and Linux package confusion with Insomnia Core

    From 2 comments
    • For Ubuntu, both insomnia and insomnia designer point to the same package 'insomnia' on your download page.
      xrendan on HN
    • Same issue (Core and Designer instructions are identical) on Ubuntu 19.10 with `sudo snap install insomnia`. About shows "Insomnia REST Client Version 7.1.1"
      rmharrison on HN
  • Sync system makes shared environment changes hard to control

    From 1 comment
    • It sounds like you are the creator/a team member, so I just wanted to give you a data point. My team used insomnia for a while. We were on the paid tier. My boss had us bail…
      PaulStatezny on HN

Requests

  • Support JSON specs and gRPC/protobuf

    From 2 comments
    • I tried importing a swagger 2.0 json, and I'm not sure it worked right? The debug side works fine, but the designer side just has the json on a single line, and nothing in the…
      thegagne on HN
    • It would be great if this supported gRPC. Other than BloomRPC, I'm not aware of any tools like this for protobuf/gRPC APIs.
      petersellers on HN
  • Support oneOf and other OpenAPI 3.0 features in output

    From 1 comment
    • This is great, but I noticed that the output doesn't fully support OpenAPI 3.0.0, particularly the use of "oneOf" responses. I believe it's because you're calling out to…
      omeze on HN
  • Store requests as plain files in git repos

    From 2 comments
    • Personally I think it's a lost opportunity that you're still not allowing people to save the configuration in the project they're working on. We switched to first vscode rest…
      411111111111111 on HN
    • Can it use an exportable/importable file as source of truth which you can then check into git?
      dyu on HN

Questions

  • How does it differ from the original Insomnia?

    From 2 comments
    • I just asked this on another version of this I saw, but how does this compare to the original Insomnia? Are they two completely different products?
      mikejulietbravo on HN
    • Love this and especially the Kubernetes features. One question - is everything in the original Insomnia in Insomnia Designer too, or are they completely different?
      mikejulietbravo on HN
  • Does it replace Insomnia Core?

    From 1 comment
    • Is the plan to merge them ever or are they going to stay separate? Also, if I use Designer then I prob don't need to use the orgiinal Insomnia, right?
      mikejulietbravo on HN

Alternatives named

  • Postman

    From 1 comment
    • I love Insomnia and use it almost daily and in the hope the developers/owners are reading here on Hacker News: Please don't make the same mistake as Postman. I used Postman years…
      littlecranky67 on HN
  • Stoplight Studio

    From 1 comment
    • For people searching for similar tools: I can highly recommend Stoplight Studio. https://stoplight.io/studio/ Depending on your actual API structure you may be able to generate a…
      Kovah on HN
  • Swagger Editor

    From 1 comment
    • I started using this today. It's good so far. I can now stop spinning up swagger editor in a container and work with this. Going to switch over to this fully since I was already…
      rak on HN
  • Fiddler

    From 1 comment
    • You could try Fiddler; it has a huge feature set along with an old-school UI: https://www.telerik.com/fiddler
      cglong on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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