API calls

An API tab holds a collection of HTTP calls and sends them to one endpoint. The same collection can run against another endpoint, for example staging or production.

Open or create a collection

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+T and choose API.
2. Type a collection name, an endpoint like https://api.example.com, or both.
3. Pick Open for an existing collection, or New collection to create one.

If you type only an endpoint, the new collection is named after its host.

The endpoint sits in the box at the top of the tab. You can change it at any time. Vandle remembers the last endpoint of each collection.

The top bar switches between Calls, Variables, Global rules and Sync.

Add and edit calls

Click + Call or press Ctrl+Shift+N. Calls are grouped by Folder in the list on the left.

For each call you set the method, the path (for example /customers/{{customerId}}) and these sections:

• Params - query parameters
• Headers
• Body - JSON, text, XML, form, multipart, a binary file or a GraphQL query
• Auth - see below
• Options - timeout, HTTP version, Follow redirects, Check the server certificate
• Rules - see below

In a form or multipart body, write one field per line as name=value. In multipart, name=@file attaches a file.

Send a call

Click Send or press Ctrl+Enter. Cancel stops it.

The answer shows on the right: status, time, size and the route it took. A JSON answer shows as a tree. Tick Raw to see the text as it came, and Headers to see the response headers.

The log at the bottom right lists every call sent, with status and time. The call list on the left shows each call's last status.

To send all calls of a folder one after the other, click Run next to the folder name. Each call sees what the calls before it set.

Cookies an answer sets are sent along with the following calls of the same tab.

Save

Click Save or press Ctrl+S. The Save button shows only while there are unsaved changes.

Vandle also saves before it sends a call, when you switch to another call and when you close the tab.

Use variables

Write {{name}} in the path, parameters, headers, body or auth. You declare variables under Variables.

Each variable has a KIND, a DEFAULT and a CURRENT VALUE. The value used is the first one that exists:

1. a value typed under CURRENT VALUE, or set by a rule
2. the value remembered on the sidebar entry
3. the default

Tick Secret for a password or a token. A secret has no default. Tick Remember to keep the value, encrypted, on the sidebar entry. The next tab you open from that entry starts with it.

Set up authentication

Under Auth, a call can use none, Basic, Bearer, an API key, Digest or Negotiate. An API key goes into a header, or into a query parameter if you tick Send as query parameter instead of a header.

A call set to inherit uses the authentication under Variables → AUTHENTICATION FOR CALLS THAT INHERIT.

Put secrets into secret variables, for example {{password}}, not straight into the field.

Pass values on with rules

A rule says: when something about the answer holds, then do something.

WHEN can test:

• the status, for example 200, 2xx, or several separated by commas
• a value in the body, as body.path
• a header
• the duration
• a network error

THEN can:

• set a variable from body.path, header.X, status, or text
• clear a variable
• write a message
• mark the call as failed
• run another call, named folder/call

The quickest way: send a call, then click a value in the answer. Vandle proposes a rule that takes this value into a variable whenever the call gets the same status. Name the variable and click Create rule. A login can keep its token this way.

Global rules apply to every call of the collection, after the call's own rules. All rules that match fire. The answer lists them under RULES IN THIS RUN and MESSAGES.

Keep the collection in a repository

Under Sync, LINKED FOLDER mirrors the collection into a folder: collection.yaml and one file per call under calls/. Every save writes what changed.

Endpoints, remembered values and secret defaults never go into the folder, and neither does anything an API answered.

If the folder changed outside Vandle, you choose Take the folder or Overwrite the folder. Unlink stops the mirroring.

Export as ZIP… writes the same files as a ZIP. Settings → API collections → Import ZIP… reads one back. There you can also rename and delete collections.

Keys

Key	Action
Ctrl+Enter	Send the call
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+Shift+N	New call

You can change these keys in Settings under Hotkeys. See Keyboard.