Over the past few years the number of web and mobile apps driven by web service APIs has exploded. Modern applications are increasingly distributed with their infrastructure, data and logic woven together across a network of internal and third-party web services.

In the midst of this transformation the need for a new set of tools has emerged. Tools that give application developers visibility into the conversations their apps are having with the services they rely on. Tools that make debugging and testing your API integrations as simple as any other line of code.

A few months ago we started Runscope to build those tools. Today, we’re making them available to you. We’re starting with a set of tools for debugging, testing and collaborating around your API integrations.

Here’s a summary of what we’re making available today:

Traffic Inspector

Runscope allows you to inspect any HTTP API call with complete request and response data. Capturing requests is easy, with no changes required to your existing code. Here’s an example request to the GitHub API in Python:

import requests resp = requests.get("https://api-github-com-xyzzy.runscope.net/")

Runscope works with any publicly-available API without any pre-configuration. The only thing you need to change is the hostname, the rest of the request (headers, params, body, etc.) and response are left in tact.

Powerful Request Editor

Our web-based HTTP request editor makes it easy to test out API calls without having to write any code. You can also use an existing request as a starting point for a new one, making it easy to edit and retry a failing request until it works.

Request Sharing

Having trouble with a particular API call and need a second pair of eyes to help out? With Runscope you can quickly create a shareable link to give to someone else to view any of your requests. Subscribers to a team plan can also privately share requests amongst team members.

Passageway (Preview)

Passageway allows you to temporarily open up your local web server to the public internet. This is great for testing webhooks and showing off your work to friends and coworkers. All traffic that passes through Passageway is available in the Traffic Inspector for viewing, retrying, sharing and more. Passageway requires the Runscope Agent to be installed on your machine and a Passageway-enabled subscription. Read More

There’s more information available about these features and the rest of what Runscope has to offer (response playback, webhook request captures, bulk execute, etc.) in the Developer Guide.

The tools we’re making available today are just the beginning; our first steps toward making modern connected applications as robust and resilient as their traditional counterparts. We’ve assembled a great team and received backing from top-tier investors. We’re excited to learn from you about how we can improve these tools and what problems we should tackle next. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.