// getting started

Getting Started

Resonance is a local-first, zero-account desktop API client. Nothing leaves your machine unless you send a request. No sign-in, no telemetry, no cloud sync — just install and start building.

Installation

Linux

  • Download the AppImage or .deb from the Download section, or install from Flathub or the AUR (yay -S resonance-bin)
  • AppImage: make it executable (chmod +x Resonance*.AppImage) and run it
  • .deb: install with sudo dpkg -i resonance*.deb

macOS

  • Download the DMG (universal — Intel and Apple Silicon) or install via Homebrew: brew install db-mobile/resonance/resonance
  • Open the DMG and drag Resonance to your Applications folder

Windows

  • Download the NSIS installer and run it — no elevated permissions required

Making Your First Request

  1. Right-click in the collections sidebar and select New Collection, then New Request
  2. Choose an HTTP method and enter a URL, e.g. https://api.example.com/users
  3. Add headers, query parameters, or a body in the tabs below the URL bar
  4. Click Send Request
  5. Inspect the response — Body, Headers, Cookies, and Performance tabs are all available

Importing Collections

OpenAPI / Swagger

  1. Click Import in the collections sidebar header and choose OpenAPI Collection
  2. Select your OpenAPI 3.0 YAML or JSON file
  3. Resonance parses all endpoints, generates example bodies from schemas, and organises them by path

Postman Collection

  1. Click Import and choose Postman Collection
  2. Select a Postman v2.0 or v2.1 JSON file — request examples and auth settings are preserved

Postman Environment

  1. Click Import and choose Postman Environment
  2. All variables are imported into a new Resonance environment

Environments & Variables

  1. Open the environment selector dropdown in the sidebar and click Manage Environments…
  2. Click Add Environment, give it a name (e.g. Development), and add key-value pairs such as baseUrl → https://api-dev.example.com
  3. Select the environment from the dropdown to activate it
  4. Use {{variableName}} anywhere in URLs, headers, or request bodies — values are substituted at send time, entirely locally

Dynamic variables like {{$uuid}} and {{$timestamp}} are generated fresh on every request without touching the environment.

Authentication

  1. Open the Authorization tab in the request panel
  2. Choose a type: Bearer Token, Basic Auth, API Key, OAuth 2.0, or Digest Auth
  3. Credentials are saved per-request and stored locally — they are never sent to any external service
  4. Reference sensitive values via environment variables: {{token}}

Workspace Tabs

  1. Click + in the tab bar to open a new workspace tab
  2. Each tab holds its own URL, method, headers, body, and response state independently
  3. Switch tabs with Ctrl/Cmd+1–9; open a new one with Ctrl/Cmd+T
  4. Tab state persists across application restarts — open exactly where you left off

Scripts

Open the Scripts tab in the request panel to write pre-request or test scripts in JavaScript. See Using Scripts for the full API reference.

Mock Server

Click the Mock Server toolbar action to spin up a local HTTP server backed by your OpenAPI collections. See Mock Server for setup details.

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Press ? anywhere to open the shortcuts reference
  • Ctrl/Cmd+Enter — Send request
  • Ctrl/Cmd+S — Save current endpoint
  • Ctrl/Cmd+T — New workspace tab
  • Ctrl/Cmd+W — Close current tab
  • Ctrl/Cmd+, — Open settings

Exporting Code

  1. Right-click an endpoint or use the export button and select Export Code
  2. Choose from cURL, Python, JavaScript, Node.js, Go, PHP, Ruby, or Java
  3. The generated snippet copies to your clipboard

Next Steps