Is Pigeon a free alternative to Postman?

Yes. Pigeon is completely free and open source. There are no paid tiers, no account requirements, and no cloud sync — your data stays on your machine. See trypigeon.dev/postman-alternative for how we differ.

What platforms does Pigeon support?

Pigeon is available for macOS today (Apple Silicon and Intel) — install with one command: curl from trypigeon.dev/install.sh. The installer clears the Gatekeeper quarantine flag so the app opens without warnings.

Can I import my existing requests?

Yes. Paste any cURL command into the URL bar or import modal and Pigeon builds the full request — method, headers, auth, and body. You can also import Postman collections and copy any request back out as cURL.

Does Pigeon require an account?

No. Open the app and send a request. Collections, history, and environments stay on your Mac — no sign-up wall.

Built for Real Developers, Not Showoffs

the best part

Send it. It sorts itself.

No naming, filing, or saving by hand. Pigeon does the librarian work while you work.

Tabs name themselves

New tabs auto-derive their name from the URL path. Rename manually and it locks — your name wins.

Requests file themselves

Every send auto-saves as a draft and files into a domain tree. No "save as…" dialog, ever.

History writes itself

Every request lands in a time-bucketed log with method, name, and status. Search with ⌘F.

while you edit

Paste it messy. Send it clean.

Code from docs and console logs isn't valid JSON. Pigeon rewrites it on the way in — quotes, keys, commas — so you never clean up by hand.

JS objects become JSON

Bare keys and 'single quotes' are rewritten to strict JSON as you paste — {{vars}} left untouched.

Trailing commas delete themselves

Docs love a trailing comma. JSON doesn't. One Format and it's gone — then it sends.

features

Everything you need. Nothing you don't.

A focused toolset for testing REST APIs — built for speed, not for upselling.

Method → URL → params → Send

Request builder

Color-coded methods, smart URL bar, clean param & auth editors.

Flip env → vars swap → secrets stay blurred

Environments

{{var}} for dev, staging, prod — secret masking, plus a red confirm guardrail before destructive methods hit production.

Folder appears → requests nest → count ticks

Collections

Auto-filed drafts + curated saves (⌘S). All local.

Paste curl → parse → ready request

cURL in & out

Paste any curl → instant request. Copy back out anytime.

Open stream → events land live → Stop

SSE streaming

Live event streams render as they arrive — newest on top, Stop anytime.

Shortcuts fire one by one — no mouse needed

Keyboard-first

Send ⌘↵, environments ⌘⇧E, help ⌘/.

why pigeon

API clients got heavy. We went the other way.

→No account, ever

Open the app and send a request. No sign-up walls, no workspace invites, no cloud sync prompts.

→Local by default

Collections, history, and environments live on your disk. Your API keys never touch anyone's cloud.

→Native, not bloated

Built for API work — a fraction of the memory and disk of typical desktop API clients.

open source

Built in the open. Owned by no one.

MIT-licensed and built publicly on GitHub. Every decision in the open. If it doesn't do what you need, you can change it.

View on GitHub Open an issue

1
Star the repoHelps other devs discover Pigeon.
2
Report or requestFound a bug or missing feature? Open an issue.
3
Send a PRTypeScript + React + Rust. Good-first-issues labeled.

download

Send your first request in 30 seconds.

Free forever. No account required.

macOS

Apple Silicon & Intel · one command

curl -fsSL https://trypigeon.dev/install.sh | sh

Pigeon isn't Apple-notarized yet, so the installer clears the Gatekeeper quarantine flag for you — no "unidentified developer" dialog, no right-click → Open dance.