Send Your First Request

This guide walks you through sending your first API request in Curlex — from opening the app to reading the response. It takes about two minutes.

We will use a free public API called the Countries API so you do not need any credentials or setup.

Step 1 — Open a New Request Tab

When you open Curlex, you land in the main workspace. There are two ways to open a new request:

• Click the + button at the bottom of the sidebar rail (the thin strip of icons on the far left), then choose New HTTP Request.
• Or click the + button in the tab bar at the top of the main area.

A new tab opens with a blank request.

Step 2 — Set the Method and URL

You will see a row across the top of the request panel with a method dropdown, a URL bar, and a Send button.

1. Make sure the method selector shows GET — it should by default. If not, click it and choose GET from the dropdown.
2. Click into the URL bar and type:

https://restcountries.com/v3.1/name/germany

Your request is now fully configured. This particular URL asks a public REST API for information about Germany — no API key required.

Step 3 — Send the Request

Click the Send button on the right side of the request bar, or press Cmd Enter (macOS) / Ctrl Enter (Windows).

The Send button changes to Cancel and a loading message appears in the response panel:

Waiting for response from the server.

This usually completes in under a second.

Step 4 — Read the Response

Once the response arrives, the response panel fills in. Here is what you will see:

The Summary Bar

Three pieces of information appear at the very top:

If you see a 4xx status (amber) or 5xx status (red), it means something went wrong — most likely the URL is incorrect.

The Body Tab

The response body is shown formatted and highlighted. For this request, you will see a JSON array containing details about Germany — the country name, capital, population, flag, currencies, and more.

The response is formatted automatically — indented and coloured — to make it easy to read. If you want to see the raw unformatted text, click the Raw toggle above the response body.

Exploring the JSON

Because this is a JSON response, Curlex gives you a few tools to navigate it:

• Click any section in the formatted view to expand or collapse it. This is useful for large, deeply nested responses.
• JSONPath filter — the filter input above the body lets you extract specific values. For example, type $[0].capital and press Enter to see just the capital city. Type $[0].languages to see the languages spoken. Clear the filter to go back to the full response.
• Copy — click the copy button to copy the entire response body to your clipboard.

The Headers Tab

Click Headers to see the HTTP headers the server sent back — things like Content-Type, Cache-Control, and others. These are useful for debugging caching issues and understanding what format the server says it is returning.

Step 5 — Try a POST Request

GET requests are read-only. Most APIs also have endpoints for creating data — those use POST. Let us try one.

We will use JSONPlaceholder — a free fake REST API designed for testing.

1. Open a new tab (click + in the tab bar).
2. Change the method to POST by clicking the method selector.
3. Enter this URL:

https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts

4. Click the Body tab below the request bar.
5. Click the body type selector (it says "None" by default) and choose JSON.
6. An editor appears. Type or paste this:

{
  "title": "My first post",
  "body": "This is the post content.",
  "userId": 1
}

7. Click Send.

The response will be a 201 Created status — the server confirms it received your data and created a new record. The response body echoes back what you sent, plus an id the server assigned.

Step 6 — Save the Request

If you want to keep this request for later, save it to a collection.

Press Cmd S (macOS) / Ctrl S (Windows), or click More ▾ → Save in the request toolbar.

A dialog appears asking for:

• Request name — give it something descriptive like Get Germany or Create Post.
• Collection — either pick an existing collection from the list or type a new collection name to create one on the spot.

Click Save. The request now appears in the sidebar under that collection, ready to run again any time.

What the Different Status Codes Mean

When you start exploring APIs, you will see various status codes. Here are the common ones:

Next Steps

Now that you have sent your first requests:

• Create your first collection — learn how to organise requests so you can reuse them
• Write your first test — automatically check that a response is correct every time you send it
• Environments and variables — stop hardcoding URLs and API keys by using variables that you can swap out with one click