Variables & Environments Comparison

Variables

Feature	VS Code	JetBrains	httpyac	VS 2022	kulala
Inline variable definition (@var = value)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Variable substitution ({{variableName}})	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Percent-encoding substitution ({{%var}}) URL-encodes the variable value. Unique to VS Code REST Client.	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗
Lazy variables (@var := value) Evaluated at execution time rather than parse time.	✗	✗	✓	✗	✗
Named request response chaining Syntax differs: VS Code uses dot-path ({{name.response.body.$.path}}), JetBrains uses script-based global variables, httpyac uses @ref.	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Environments in settings.json	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗
http-client.env.json	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
http-client.private.env.json	✗	✓	✓	✗	✓
http-client.env.json.user Microsoft-specific override file.	✗	✗	✗	✓	✗
.env dotenv files VS Code REST Client and VS 2022 support via {{$dotenv NAME}} accessor. httpyac and kulala parse .env files natively.	◐	✗	✓	◐	✓
JS/JSON config file httpyac.config.js or .httpyac.js	✗	✗	✓	✗	✗
$shared environment	✓	✗	✓	✓	✗
Secrets providers (Azure Key Vault, etc.) ASP.NET Core User Secrets, Azure Key Vault, DPAPI.	✗	✗	✗	✓	✗

Dynamic variables

Feature	VS Code	JetBrains	httpyac	VS 2022	kulala
UUID v4 VS Code: {{$guid}}, JetBrains: {{$uuid}}, httpyac: both syntaxes. VS 2022 does not document UUID generation.	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓
Unix timestamp {{$timestamp}} — universal syntax.	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Random integer VS Code: {{$randomInt min max}}, JetBrains: {{$randomInt}} (0-1000).	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Datetime formatting VS Code: {{$datetime format}}, JetBrains: {{$isoTimestamp}}.	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗
Random data (Faker-based) Java Faker: $random.name, $random.address, $random.lorem, etc.	✗	✓	✗	✗	✗
OS environment variables VS Code: {{$processEnv NAME}}, JetBrains: {{$env.NAME}}.	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗
User prompt for input VS Code: @prompt, httpyac: {{$input prompt}}, kulala: @prompt.	✓	✗	✓	✗	✓
Azure AD / OIDC tokens {{$aadToken}}, {{$aadV2Token}}, {{$oidcAccessToken}}.	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗

Key portability notes

Environment format

The biggest portability challenge is environment configuration:

• VS Code REST Client uses settings.json — not portable to any other client
• http-client.env.json is the closest to a standard, supported by JetBrains, httpyac, VS 2022, and kulala.nvim
• .env files are supported by httpyac and kulala.nvim
• httpyac is the only bridge that supports all formats

For maximum portability, use http-client.env.json.

Variable syntax

@var = value and {{var}} are universal. Everything else has caveats:

• Percent-encoding {{%var}} is VS Code only
• Lazy variables := are httpyac only
• Faker random data $random.name is JetBrains only
• Azure AD tokens $aadToken are VS Code only

Response chaining

Three fundamentally different approaches:

1. VS Code REST Client: declarative dot-path syntax ({{name.response.body.$.jsonPath}})
2. JetBrains: imperative scripts that store to global variables (client.global.set())
3. httpyac: @ref dependencies with automatic response-as-variable

VS 2022 adopted the VS Code REST Client syntax. kulala.nvim supports the JetBrains approach.