# Kong/unirest-java

Unirest in Java: Simplified, lightweight HTTP client library.

Repository: https://github.com/Kong/unirest-java
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/unirest-java
Homepage: http://kong.github.io/unirest-java/
Language: Java
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-07-28T21:04:17+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 94, release rhythm 94, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5623, "days_push": 36, "days_rel": 41, "gap_med": 20, "n_releases_24m": 12}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2702, forks 589 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:11.434400+00:00)

## What it is
Unirest is a lightweight, fluent HTTP client library for Java supporting HTTP/1 and HTTP/2, WebSockets, JSON mapping via Jackson or GSON, and easy request/response handling. It also ships a mocking library for testing HTTP interactions.

## Use cases
- make simple HTTP requests from Java
- call REST APIs with a fluent client
- send multipart file uploads
- convert JSON responses into POJOs
- manipulate cookies and headers on requests
- mock HTTP responses in unit tests
- use WebSockets from Java

## When to choose
- you want a simple, lightweight alternative to raw Apache HttpClient or OkHttp boilerplate
- you need fluent request building with path/query params, headers, and cookies
- you want built-in POJO serialization with Jackson or GSON
- you need HTTP mocking for tests in the same library

## When to avoid
- you need reactive or async-first streaming HTTP (consider WebClient or Reactor Netty)
- you are on Java 8 or older (Unirest 4 requires Java 11+)
- you need a full-featured low-level client with fine-grained connection control
- you are on Android and want a client specifically optimized for mobile

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: http-client, serialization, websocket, mocking
- domain: web-development, developer-tools, apis
- platform: jvm, cross-platform
- tags: fluent-api, http-requests, jackson, gson, multipart, rest-client

## Member repositories
- Kong/unirest-java (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:11.434400+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 2026-08-30T02:15:57.173128+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Kong/unirest-java (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:11.434400+00:00, sha a20ec83a7c76)
  - homepage: http://kong.github.io/unirest-java/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:58:57.616355+00:00, sha 0488836f96f9)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.