In this tutorial, you will learn about Thunder Client and how you can use it to replace Postman. When I'm writing code, I do not like to jump between projects and lose my flow state. This often happens when I/m writing an API, I need to test the API to check the data shape of the API response, so I fire up Postman and test away. I find that jumping between VS-Code and Postman makes me less efficient. This is where Thunder Client comes into play. Released in March 2021, this API client which is similar to postman can be used entirely within VS-Code. Downloading Thunder Client is simple, head over to the Microsoft marketplace and install it.
After Thunder client has been installed, you will see a new icon appear at the bottom of the sidebar:
Thunder client comes with many of the same features as Postman. You can define environment variables, so you can easily test the same API on different servers:
You can also store API queries within collections. Meaning you do not need to remember API URLs anymore:
After using Thunder Client for a month, I have found that I can focus a lot easier when writing code as I am not jumping out of VS-Code as much. So far I can do everything within Thunder Client that I normally do within Postman. I definitely recommend that you check out this free package and I give it a 👍. Happy Coding 🤘
