Chiko vs grpcmd

Chiko is a free, open-source desktop terminal interface for testing gRPC APIs. When a server exposes reflection, it can discover and browse available gRPC endpoints. Chiko creates formatted request templates, and requests can include Bearer-token authorization, custom headers, and other metadata. You can save requests as bookmarks and replay them later. The project lists importing and exporting grpcurl commands as completed features, and a release changelog records SSL connection support. Installation instructions cover Homebrew, Go installation, building from source, and prebuilt releases. Chiko is licensed under the MIT License and lists a Free plan at free, with no paid plans or usage limits stated. OAuth, API keys, proto-file import, and password protection for sensitive bookmarks are listed as work in progress. Felix Angga, identified as a software engineer, is the maker.

grpcmd is a free command-line tool for working with gRPC services on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It can use reflection to find available services and methods, describe a method’s request and response messages, and make calls. Requests and responses can stream, with headers, data, and trailers included in output. Users who do not want to rely on reflection can instead provide.proto files and import search paths. The tool can also start a gRPC server implementing grpcmd.GrpcmdService with reflection, and its documentation covers shell completion for Bash, Zsh, fish, and PowerShell. A related tool, grpcmd-script, lets users define endpoint tests in JavaScript and assert response headers, data messages, and trailers; it is distributed as a binary and does not require Node.js. The separate grpcmd-gui desktop app supports reflection-based method lookup, request headers, response headers and trailers, JSON request templates, streaming, and themes. GUI downloads are available for macOS, Windows, and Linux, including amd64 and arm64 builds. grpcmd is listed at free; grpcmd-script is listed at $9 a year with early-bird pricing.