Desktop app

The desktop app and the CLI drive the same engine and read the same YAML. A schema that lints in one behaves identically in the other — so you can explore in the app and run in CI without translating anything.

The app is where you build and debug a schema. The CLI is where you run it.

Which one to use

Task	Use
Explore an unfamiliar API	Desktop
Write or edit a schema without hand-editing YAML	Desktop
Debug why a step failed, step by step	Desktop
Store a credential in your OS keychain	Desktop only — the CLI can’t
Inspect a response body, diff it against a saved example	Desktop
Run in CI, or from a script	CLI only
Machine-readable output (JSON, JUnit)	CLI only
Validate a schema in a pre-commit hook	CLI
Re-run the same chain repeatedly while changing one field	Desktop

Neither is a subset of the other. Most people use both: the app to get a chain working, the CLI to keep it working.

The workbench

Three panes, left to right:

┌──────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┬──────────────┐
│              │  tabs                           │              │
│  Explorer    │  chain strip                    │  Response    │
│              │ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │      or      │
│  actors      │ │ GET  /api/v1/orders/{{id}}  │ │  Timeline    │
│  resources   │ │                    [Send]   │ │              │
│  operations  │ ├─────────────────────────────┤ │  body tree   │
│              │ │ Params Headers Body Auth    │ │  raw · diff  │
│              │ │ Chain  Assertions           │ │  headers     │
│              │ └─────────────────────────────┘ │              │
└──────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┴──────────────┘

Both side panes are resizable and collapsible, and the layout persists between sessions:

Action	How
Collapse / show Explorer	Ctrl+B, or View → Hide Explorer
Collapse / show Response	Ctrl+J, or View → Hide Response
Resize	Drag a splitter
Response beside vs below	Response header → Split Horizontally / Vertically

A collapsed pane becomes a thin labelled rail — click it to bring the pane back. By default the Response pane moves below the editor on a narrow window and back beside it when there’s room; View → Automatic Response Layout controls that.

Explorer

Your project as a tree: actors and resources, with each resource’s operations beneath it, and any saved response examples beneath those.

• Click an operation to open it
• Double-click (or Enter) to open and run it
• Right-click for Edit, Rename, Delete, New Endpoint, New Module, New Actor
• Search filters operations by name and method across every open project

Two status dots are worth knowing:

• Next to an actor — whether its session is live, expiring, or absent
• Next to an operation — how it did on its last run

Editor tabs

Several operations stay open at once, like an editor. Tabs are drag-reorderable; middle-click or × closes one, and Ctrl+W closes the active tab. Tabs show the HTTP method, so a row of them reads as a workflow.

The chain strip

Above the editor, always visible, is the resolved chain for whatever you have open. Each step is a pill you can click to jump to that operation, so a seven-step chain is navigable rather than described.

It hides itself for an operation with no dependencies, so a plain request loses no vertical space.

There’s also Run cleanly here — discard cached sessions and extractions, then run the whole chain from scratch. That’s the button for “it worked once and now I don’t trust the cache”.

Working with projects

Action	Where
New project	File → New Project, creates reqloom.yaml
Open project	File → Open Project, pick the folder
Import a spec	File → Import — OpenAPI, Postman, Insomnia, Thunder Client, Hoppscotch, REST Client, Bruno
Switch project	Project switcher in the toolbar, with a Recent list

Several projects can be open at once; the switcher moves between them.

Keyboard

Shortcut	Does
Ctrl+Enter	Run the current operation
Ctrl+P	Command palette
Ctrl+B	Toggle Explorer
Ctrl+J	Toggle Response
Ctrl+W	Close the active tab
Enter in Explorer	Run the selected operation

The command palette covers New Project, Open, Import, Manage Secrets, View Cookies, New Module, New Endpoint, Run, Dry Run, Generate Hook Typings, and the light/dark switch.

Appearance

Appearance menu, or the sun / moon / monitor buttons in the toolbar:

• Light, Dark, or System
• Density: Comfortable or Compact

Both persist. There’s no separate preferences window — settings live in the menus and toolbar.

Capture bodies

A toolbar checkbox. When on, response bodies are kept in memory so you can browse the body tree, diff against a saved example, and save examples. When off, the raw view tells you the body wasn’t captured.

Leave it on while developing. Turn it off when running something that returns very large payloads.

Next

• Running & debugging — dry runs, the timeline, history, latency
• Editing schemas — edit mode, the chain table, secrets, environments
• CLI overview — the other half