Sending nested JSON object using HTTPie

Question

I am trying to use HTTPie to parse to send some nested JSON object, but I can not find how. It is pretty clear how to send a JSON object but not a nested one such as

{ "user": { "name": "john" "age": 10 } }

Answer 1

Update for HTTPie 3.0 released in January 2022:

There’s now built-in support for nested JSON using the HTTPie language:

$ http pie.dev/post \   tool[name]=HTTPie \   tool[about][homepage]=httpie.io \   tool[about][mission]='Make APIs simple and intuitive' \   tool[platforms][]=terminal \   tool[platforms][]=desktop \   tool[platforms][]=web \   tool[platforms][]=mobile  

{     "tool": {         "name": "HTTPie",         "about": {             "mission": "Make APIs simple and intuitive"             "homepage": "httpie.io",         },         "platforms": [             "terminal",             "desktop",             "web",             "mobile",         ]     } } 

You can learn more about nested JSON in the docs: https://httpie.io/docs/cli/nested-json

---

Old answer for HTTPie older than 3.0:

You can pass the whole JSON via stdin:

$ echo '{ "user": { "name": "john", "age": 10 } }' | http httpbin.org/post 

Or specify the raw JSON as value with :=:

$ http httpbin.org/post user:='{"name": "john", "age": 10 }' 

Answer 2

I like this way:

$ http PUT localhost:8080/user <<<'{ "user": { "name": "john", "age": 10 }}' 

It is preferrable because it has the same prefix as the related commands, and so it is convenient to find the commands with Ctrl+R in bash:

$ http localhost:8080/user/all $ http GET localhost:8080/user/all # the same as the previous $ http DELETE localhost:8080/user/234 

If you have fishshell, which doesn't have Here Strings, I can propose the following workaround:

~> function tmp; set f (mktemp); echo $argv > "$f"; echo $f; end ~> http POST localhost:8080/user < (tmp '{ "user": { "name": "john", "age": 10 }}')