cURL

cURL is a handy command-line that lets you transfer data over the internet right from your terminal. It’s been around for over 20 years, supports a variety of internet protocols, and is compatible with all modern operating systems. 

cURL is often used to interact with APIs. For example, you can experiment with endpoints, or handle more serious tasks: sending data payloads in POST requests, fetching large datasets, testing API responses, or automating interactions with web services. It’s also useful for debugging, allowing you to check the status codes, headers, and content returned by an API to ensure everything is working as expected.

The command line can also be used in web scraping. It allows you to navigate your scraper and manipulate headers like user agents and cookies. You can also use cURL with proxies, and test different API endpoints by simply entering a cURL command rather than using API calls.

What’s more, cURL has a simple text interface that works across different systems and it’s very powerful. You can use it to write complex scripts that involve things like authentication, SSL connections, proxy tunneling, and cookies. And if you’re just getting started, don’t worry – the basic commands are pretty easy to pick up.