Roster Wiki

Welcome to the Roster documentation! Roster is a modern HTTP client for GNOME, built with GTK 4 and libadwaita.

What is Roster?

Roster is a native GNOME application for testing and debugging HTTP APIs with support for:

HTTP requests (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) with custom headers and bodies
Project organization with environment variables
Secure credential storage using GNOME Keyring
JavaScript preprocessing and postprocessing scripts
Request history and export to cURL

Quick Links

Getting Started

Installation - How to build and install Roster
Getting-Started - Your first HTTP request
Projects-and-Environments - Organize your work

Features

Variables - Use variables in requests
Sensitive-Variables - Secure storage with GNOME Keyring
Scripts - Preprocessing and postprocessing automation
Export - Export requests to other tools
History - Track and replay requests

Reference

API-Reference - Complete JavaScript API documentation
Keyboard-Shortcuts - Speed up your workflow
FAQ - Frequently asked questions

Development

Contributing - How to contribute to Roster
Translation - Help translate Roster to your language
Development - Developer documentation
Architecture - Technical overview

Key Features

Secure Credential Storage

Store API keys, tokens, and passwords securely in GNOME Keyring with one-click encryption:

Variables:
  base_url     (unlocked)  → Stored in JSON (plain text)
  api_key      (locked)    → Stored in GNOME Keyring (encrypted)

Learn more: Sensitive-Variables

Powerful Automation

Use JavaScript preprocessing and postprocessing scripts to:

Extract authentication tokens from responses
Add dynamic headers (timestamps, signatures)
Chain requests together
Validate responses

// Postprocessing: Extract token from login response
const data = JSON.parse(response.body);
roster.setVariable('auth_token', data.access_token);
console.log('Logged in successfully!');

Learn more: Scripts

Multi-Environment Support

Manage multiple environments with different variable values:

Variable	Production	Development
base_url	`api.example.com`	`localhost:3000`
api_key	`prod-key-***`	`dev-key-***`

Switch environments with one click - all variables update automatically.

Learn more: Variables

Platform

Roster is built specifically for the GNOME desktop using:

GTK 4 - Modern UI toolkit
libadwaita - GNOME design patterns
libsoup3 - HTTP networking (from GNOME Platform)
libsecret - Secure credential storage
GJS - JavaScript runtime for scripts

License

Roster is free and open-source software licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.

Support

Issues: https://git.bugsy.cz/beval/roster/issues
Source: https://git.bugsy.cz/beval/roster
Wiki: You are here!

Next Steps

New to Roster? Start with Installation and Getting-Started

Need to store API keys? Check out Sensitive-Variables

Want to automate workflows? Learn about Scripts