Thunder Client
Thunder Client is a lightweight REST API client extension for Visual Studio Code created by Ranga Vadhineni, providing a clean interface for sending HTTP requests, managing collections, and testing APIs without leaving the editor. With nearly 7 million installs, it pioneered GUI-based API testing in VS Code with 100% local storage, scriptless testing, Git Sync for team collaboration, GraphQL support, and an advanced CLI for CI/CD integration. Thunder Client supports importing collections from Postman, Insomnia, Hoppscotch, and OpenAPI 3.0, and offers pre/post-request scripting and environment variables.
Thunder Client is listed with 2 APIs on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include API Client, API Testing, CI/CD, CLI, and Collection.
The Thunder Client catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.
Thunder Client’s developer surface includes engineering blog, documentation, GitHub presence, pricing, changelog, and 15 more developer resources.
Kin Score
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-10-17 · rubric v0.24.0
What adopting Thunder Client moves on the Kin Score 3
Thunder Client is an area vendor: providers adopt it to run part of their developer surface. This is the Kin Score checks its features can move for a provider that adopts it, what each one really earns, and what it earns nothing for.
Thunder Client is a developer’s tool, not a publishing surface, so it earns a provider almost nothing by being used. What it can do is export: a collection in Postman format can earn postman_present if the provider hosts and declares it, and the paid OpenAPI export can create a contract for a provider that had only requests. Its Git-synced collections are a real practice no check reads.
| Check | Earns | Through |
|---|---|---|
| Publishes a machine-readable contractsaturated Contract QualityPaid tier only, and only if the provider publishes the exported OpenAPI as its contract. A spec derived from saved requests carries what the requests carried — expect weak descriptions, schemas and error responses downstream. |
20.0 of 20 | Export in Thunder Client, Postman and OpenAPI formats |
| Postman collection Developer ErgonomicsExport the collection in Postman format, host it where the provider controls it and declare it as a Postman pointer. A native Thunder Client file does not satisfy the check. |
2.0 of 2 | Export in Thunder Client, Postman and OpenAPI formats |
| Published example corpusconditional Contract QualityOnly if the provider publishes the synced collection in a public repo and declares it as Examples; a set of runnable requests is an example corpus only if it covers real calls with real payloads. |
4.0 of 4 | Git Sync |
What Thunder Client ships that earns nothing (2)
- Thunder Client CLI — The CLI runs Thunder Client collections; it is not a command-line client for the provider’s API.
- Collections and environments — A native Thunder Client collection is not Postman-typed; only the Postman-format export is read.
A model, not a score. Adopting this vendor changes a provider's Kin Score only when the provider publishes the resulting artifacts on its own surface; nothing here writes a score, and no sponsorship or partnership can. The rating is not for sale → · Full vendor facets artifact
Standards implemented 1
Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.
APIs 2
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
Thunder Client
Thunder Client is the flagship VS Code REST API client extension offering a lightweight GUI for sending HTTP requests, managing collections with environment variables, and runni...
Thunder Client CLI
The Thunder Client CLI (@thunderclient/cli) is a Node.js command-line tool for running Thunder Client requests, collections, and cURL commands from the terminal. It supports CI/...
GraphQL 1
GraphQL schemas published by this provider.
Thunder Client GraphQL API
Thunder Client is the flagship VS Code REST API client extension offering a lightweight GUI for sending HTTP requests, managing collections with environment variables, and runni...
GRAPHQLPricing Plans 1
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Rate Limits 1
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Thunder Client Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSFinOps 1
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Thunder Client Finops
FINOPSSemantic Vocabularies 1
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Thunder Client Context
JSON-LDSpectral Rules 1
Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.
Thunder Client — jsonschema rules
SPECTRALJSON Schema 2
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
Thunder Client Collection
JSON SCHEMAThunder Client Environment
JSON SCHEMAJSON Structure 1
JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.
Thunder Client Collection Structure
JSON STRUCTUREExamples 2
Example request and response payloads for these APIs.
Security Posture 1
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Resources
Documentation 3
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Design & Contract 3
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 3
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 1
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 2
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Commercial 3
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 4
The organization behind the API
Other 1
Properties that don't map to a standard resource type
Source (apis.yml)
Work with this as data
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