Getting Started

This guide will have you making authenticated API requests in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

sreq installed (Installation)
Access to at least one provider (Consul, AWS, env vars, or a .env file)

Step 1: Initialize Configuration

Create the default configuration:

sreq init

This creates ~/.sreq/config.yaml with a starter template.

Step 2: Configure Authentication

Run the interactive auth setup:

sreq auth

This guides you through configuring:

Consul — Address and token
AWS — Region and profile

Alternatively, configure providers individually:

sreq auth consul   # Just Consul
sreq auth aws      # Just AWS

Tip: For quick local testing, you can skip sreq auth and use the env or dotenv provider instead — just set environment variables or create a .env file. See Providers for details.

Step 3: Add a Service

Add your first service:

sreq service add auth-service \
  --consul-key auth \
  --aws-prefix auth-svc

This tells sreq:

Look for auth keys in Consul for base URL and username
Look for auth-svc prefix in AWS Secrets Manager for passwords

Step 4: Make a Request

Now make your first request:

sreq run GET /api/v1/health -s auth-service -e dev

What happens:

sreq loads config for auth-service
Fetches base URL from Consul: services/auth/dev/base_url
Fetches credentials from AWS: auth-svc/dev/password
Makes authenticated GET request to <base_url>/api/v1/health
Returns the response

Step 5: Explore Features

Verbose Mode

See what sreq is doing:

sreq run GET /api/v1/users -s auth-service -e dev --verbose

Output:

Request Details:
  Service:     auth-service
  Environment: dev
  Method:      GET
  Path:        /api/v1/users

Resolving credentials from providers...
  Base URL:  https://auth.example.com
  Username:  api_user
  Password:  ap****ey

{"users": [...]}

POST with Body

sreq run POST /api/v1/users -s auth-service -e dev \
  -d '{"name": "John", "email": "john@example.com"}'

POST with File

sreq run POST /api/v1/users -s auth-service -e dev -d @user.json

Custom Headers

sreq run GET /api/v1/users -s auth-service -e dev \
  -H "X-Request-ID: 12345" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

Dry Run

See what would be sent without executing:

sreq run GET /api/v1/users -s auth-service -e dev --dry-run

Quick Reference

Command	Description
`sreq init`	Initialize configuration
`sreq auth`	Configure provider authentication
`sreq service add <name>`	Add a new service
`sreq service list`	List configured services
`sreq run <METHOD> <path>`	Make an HTTP request
`sreq history`	View request history
`sreq sync <env>`	Cache credentials for offline use
`sreq tui`	Launch interactive TUI

Common Flags

Flag	Short	Description
`--service`	`-s`	Service name
`--env`	`-e`	Environment (dev/staging/prod)
`--data`	`-d`	Request body (or @filename)
`--header`	`-H`	Add header (repeatable)
`--verbose`	`-v`	Show detailed output
`--dry-run`		Preview without executing
`--output`	`-o`	Output format (json/raw/headers)

Next Steps

Configuration — Deep dive into config options
Commands — Full command reference
Providers — Provider-specific configuration