Chiko vs grpcui

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.

grpcui is a free, open-source command-line tool for interacting with gRPC servers through a browser-based interface. It is aimed at gRPC APIs rather than REST APIs and can discover service schemas through server reflection, .proto source files, or compiled protoset files. Its interface builds dynamic forms for protobuf messages, including well-known types, oneofs, and maps, and also accepts a complete JSON request body. grpcui supports RPC methods including streaming, then displays response headers, messages or errors, trailers, and readable HTML tables. It connects to plaintext and TLS servers, including mutual TLS with client certificates. Streaming requests have a constraint: they must be constructed all at once, so bidirectional streams cannot be handled interactively like they can with grpcurl. The project also provides Go packages for embedding a form or complete web UI in a Go HTTP server. Installation is documented through Homebrew on macOS or Linux, and through the Go install command. It is released under the MIT license.