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

47 points by dhruv3006 2 days 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

Download Voiden here : https://voiden.md/download

We'd love feedback from folks tired of overcomplicated and bloated API tooling !

VeryVito - 2 days 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.

unkn0wn_root - 2 days 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
- VeryVito - 2 days 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 - 2 days ago
  
  On a big TUI kick recently and that looks incredible! Good stuff
hypeatei - 2 days ago

You haven't commented on HN since 2018 and this is the post you came across totally organically to shill a new API client? Seems like they paid you to advertise here.
- VeryVito - 2 days ago
  
  Nope. I found the tool in a web search a few months ago, and I've been filing bug reports and keeping up with the project for the past few months. I knew they were open-sourcing it and announcing it here today, so yes, I wanted to put my two cents in.
  You're right, I don't post much here (or anywhere these days, really), and knee-jerk accusations like this are part of the reason. But sometimes I like to share things I find useful with other developers. I certainly don't make a living doing so, though.
  Enjoy your day!
  - hypeatei - 2 days ago
    
    > I knew they were open-sourcing it and announcing it here today
    Yeah, that seems like pertinent information that'd make your original post a lot more transparent. You're obviously invested in this project to some degree even if it's not financial.
    
    VeryVito - 2 days ago
    
    I don't know what to tell you, but I use the tool and think others might find it useful. If an appraisal from a user isn't welcomed here -- or somehow makes you less inclined to use it -- then I'm not even sure this site is all about.
    And you wonder why I haven't commented here in the past eight years.
dhruv3006 - 2 days ago

Thank you for the kind words!

fastball - 2 days 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.

p0w3n3d - 2 days ago

There is also https://insomnia.rest/
- AxiomPraxis - a day ago
  
  The guy who wrote Insomnia sold it - https://yaak.app/blog/yet-another-api-client and ended up writing a new one, https://yaak.app/
nikolasdimi - 2 days ago

thanks for the points- on the product comment: in what way you think it doesn't fit? genuinely interested.
- fastball - 2 days 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.
- embedding-shape - 2 days 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 - a day 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.
GlacierFox - 2 days 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 - 2 days ago
  
  Thank you! Anything we can do better ?

dhruv3006 - 2 days ago

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

GlacierFox - 2 days ago

*before it was open sourced.

philipwhiuk - 2 days ago

When you say API do you mean REST API?

dhruv3006 - a day ago

We support GRPC,WSS and GraphQL via plugins too!

K3UL - a day ago

So we really don't talk about Bruno then?

nikolasdimi - a day ago

:)

hypeatei - 2 days 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 - 2 days 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 - 2 days 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.
  - nikolasdimi - a day ago
    
    one of the creators here - you are right in the sense that most tools start open source and then they close source. For us it was different/ the opposite. We first made it as a product and then we open sourced it. It was never our intention to make it a SaaS though nor charge for it.