curl to Code Converter

Convert curl Commands to Code

The Tools Kit's free curl to Code Converter turns a curl command into a ready-to-use HTTP request in Python, JavaScript, Node.js, Go, PHP, Ruby, Java, C#, Rust or Swift. Paste the example from an API's documentation, or a request you copied from your browser's dev tools, and get the same method, URL, headers and body written for the HTTP client your project already uses.

Whether you need to convert curl to Python requests, turn curl into a JavaScript fetch call, or translate a curl example into Go, the converter handles the flag-by-flag translation so you do not have to work out where each header and body field belongs.

How to Use the curl Converter

1. 1

   Paste the curl command

   Paste the full command into the curl command box, including the URL and any -X, -H, -d, -u or -F flags. Multi-line commands joined with backslashes are fine.

2. 2

   Choose a target language

   Pick Python (requests), JavaScript (fetch), Node.js, Go, PHP, Ruby, Java, C#, Rust or Swift from the Target language menu.

3. 3

   Click Convert

   The command is parsed and translated into an equivalent HTTP request in the language you picked. If it cannot be parsed, an error explains why.

4. 4

   Copy the generated code

   Use the Copy button to take the snippet into your project, then replace any placeholder tokens with real values from your own config.

The converter only writes code. It never sends the request to the URL in your command, so you can safely convert calls to production endpoints and run them later yourself.

curl to Python Requests: A Worked Example

The command the tool opens with sends a JSON body to create a user:

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/users \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Alice"}'

With Python (requests) selected, Convert produces this (a short commented-out alternative using the raw string body is also included in the output):

import requests

headers = {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
}

json_data = {
    'name': 'Alice',
}

response = requests.post('https://api.example.com/users', headers=headers, json=json_data)

Because the Content-Type header says JSON, the -d string is parsed into a Python dictionary and passed as json= rather than as a raw string. If your body will not parse, check it first with the JSON formatter, which reports the parser error for invalid JSON. Choosing JavaScript (fetch) instead gives a fetch() call with method: 'POST', a headers object and body: JSON.stringify(...).

How curl Flags Map to Code

Most curl commands in API docs use a handful of flags. Here is what each one becomes in the generated code, using Python as the reference:

A query string on the URL, such as ?page=2, is split into a separate params dictionary in Python. If a parameter value contains spaces or symbols, the URL encoder shows how it should be percent-encoded. A -u user:password flag is plain HTTP Basic auth, which is just the pair Base64-encoded in an Authorization header; you can see that value with the Base64 encoder.

Copy as cURL From Browser Dev Tools

Chrome, Edge and Firefox can export any request from the Network tab as a curl command: right-click the request and choose Copy as cURL. Pick the bash variant where offered. The converter parses commands with a bash parser, so the Windows cmd variant, which escapes quotes with the ^ character, comes out garbled. Copied requests often carry cookies and authorization headers, so trim the headers you do not need before converting.

When a captured request carries a bearer token, the JWT decoder shows its claims and expiry (paste the token without the Bearer prefix), which helps when a converted request fails with a 401. If the converted code runs but the server returns an unexpected code, look it up in the HTTP status codes reference.

Is It Safe to Paste API Keys?

Unlike most tools on this site, this converter does not run fully in your browser. It uses the open-source curlconverter library, which depends on a native bash parser, so the command is sent to our server, converted, and returned. Only a usage event recording whether the conversion succeeded is kept; the command text is not stored. Even so, treat any converter the way you would treat a shared screen: swap real API keys, session cookies and tokens for placeholders such as YOUR_API_KEY before converting, then load the real secret from an environment variable in your code. For APIs that sign requests, the HMAC generator lets you check a signature by hand.

Common uses

• Turning a curl example from API documentation into working code in your project's language
• Reproducing a browser request captured with Copy as cURL as a Python or Node.js script
• Learning what each flag in an unfamiliar curl command actually does
• Prototyping a REST API call without writing HTTP client boilerplate by hand
• Porting the same request between languages, for example from Python to Go

More utilities for working with APIs, encodings and data formats are collected in the developer tools section of The Tools Kit.

Frequently Asked Questions