# imroc/req

Simple Go HTTP client with Black Magic

Repository: https://github.com/imroc/req
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/req
Homepage: https://req.cool
Language: Go
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: golang, go, http, http-client
Last push: 2026-08-25T17:03:09+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 98/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 97, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3476, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 20, "gap_med": 16, "n_releases_24m": 24}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4853, forks 405 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:01.443563+00:00)

## What it is
Req is a simple yet powerful Go HTTP client library with chainable APIs, supporting HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3. It offers built-in debugging dumps, automatic retries, auto-decoding, authentication, file download/upload with progress callbacks, and TLS fingerprint impersonation to bypass anti-crawler detection.

## Use cases
- make http requests in go with a simple chainable client
- test apis from go code instead of curl or postman
- scrape websites that block bots via http fingerprint impersonation
- download files with progress callbacks and parallel segments
- debug http requests by dumping full request and response content
- retry failed requests with exponential backoff
- use http3 or force a specific http version

## When to choose
- you want a batteries-included Go HTTP client with retries, auth, and debugging built in
- you need HTTP/3 support or automatic protocol negotiation
- you need to impersonate browser TLS fingerprints for crawling
- you want minimal-code API testing with MustXXX helpers

## When to avoid
- you need only the standard library and want zero dependencies
- you are building a server rather than a client
- you need a general-purpose scraping framework with parsing and scheduling

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: http-client, middleware, serialization, web-scraping
- domain: web-development, developer-tools, apis, crawlers
- platform: go, cross-platform
- tags: http2, http3, retry, fingerprint-impersonation, api-testing, debugging, file-download

## Member repositories
- imroc/req (main) score 98

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:01.443563+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:18:24.163063+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/imroc/req (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:01.443563+00:00, sha 920e9eb7c74a)
  - homepage: https://req.cool (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:09.256684+00:00, sha 445488fcdbf2)
  - site_page: https://req.cool/docs/prologue/introduction (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:09.259330+00:00, sha 48054d91d580)
  - site_page: https://req.cool/docs/prologue/quickstart (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:09.261376+00:00, sha db547deb9ac5)
  - site_page: https://req.cool/docs/tutorial/debugging (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:09.263351+00:00, sha b11dd2add5ee)
  - site_page: https://req.cool/docs/tutorial/quick-test (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:09.265140+00:00, sha 5033b21245d3)
  - site_page: https://req.cool/docs/tutorial/auto-decode (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:09.266634+00:00, sha e7a7369420f2)
  - site_page: https://req.cool/docs/tutorial/force-http-version (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:09.268137+00:00, sha 43e9846f0b69)
  - site_page: https://req.cool/docs/tutorial/retry (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:09.269658+00:00, sha 6d1d55ff71a7)
  - site_page: https://req.cool/docs/tutorial/download (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:09.271295+00:00, sha f7f62930c496)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.