Bruno is an open-source, Git-native API client that stores collections as plain-text files in a repository, enabling version control, collaboration, and local execution. It works across desktop, CLI, VS Code, and CI/CD pipelines, with data remaining on the user's machine. Built on the OpenCollection standard, it offers an extensible alternative to cloud-locked API platforms.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Traditional API clients are often cloud-based platforms that lock users into proprietary ecosystems, requiring data to be stored on external servers. This creates security concerns, limits offline access, and complicates collaboration and version control for development teams. Developers are forced to rely on bloated tools that do not integrate well with their existing Git-based workflows.
Solution
Bruno provides a Git-native API client that stores collections as plain-text files directly in a repository, making them human-readable, diff-friendly, and fully version-controlled. The tool works seamlessly with Git, IDEs, terminals, and AI agents, allowing developers to manage API collections as code. Bruno is open-source and locally executed, ensuring that data never leaves the user's machine, and it inherits existing enterprise security policies such as device management, repo permissions, and network controls. It also supports CLI execution for CI/CD integration, mock servers, and API documentation generation, all built on the open OpenCollection standard.
Target Audience
Primary users are software developers, API engineers, and DevOps teams who need a secure, version-controlled, and locally executed API client that integrates with their existing Git and CI/CD workflows.
Features
- Collections stored as plain-text files in a repo, enabling Git-based version control and code review
- OpenCollection YAML format, which is human-readable and diff-friendly
- Desktop app for Windows, macOS, and Linux, plus a CLI for terminal-based workflows and CI/CD integration
- VS Code extension for sending requests without leaving the editor
- Local execution with no cloud dependency, ensuring data privacy and offline access
- Enterprise-ready with automatic inheritance of device, MDM, repo, and network security policies
- Mock server support for realistic API responses during development
- API documentation generation from collections, publishable as shareable HTML