So, I've used the VS Code and IntelliJ extensions that support ".http" files for making REST requests forever.

They're incredibly useful for embedding executable API documentation in your projects.

What I've always wanted is the ability to embed assertions on the response.

Something like:

    POST http://api.mysite.com/todo
    Content-Type: application/json

    { "text": "Do the dishes" }

    ASSERT_RESPONSE_MATCHES

    { "id": 1, "text": "Do the dishes" }

Currently I do this with manual scripting

Hurl's maintainer here,

you can add asserts on response body, headers, certificate etc with Hurl [1]:

  GET https://example.org/api/tests/4567
  HTTP 200
  [Asserts]
  header "x-foo" contains "bar"
  certificate "Expire-Date" daysAfterNow > 15
  ip == "2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:733"
  jsonpath "$.status" == "RUNNING"
  jsonpath "$.tests" count == 25
  jsonpath "$.id" matches /\d{4}/

You can see how you can make various asserts here [2]

[1]: https://hurl.dev

[2]: https://hurl.dev/docs/asserting-response.html