Authentication

Basic authentication

All major implementations support automatic Base64 encoding for Basic auth:

GET https://api.example.com/protected
Authorization: Basic username password

VS CodeJetBrainshttpyackulala

VS 2022 does not document automatic Base64 encoding for Basic auth.

VS Code REST Client also accepts username:password (colon-separated) or pre-encoded Base64 values.

Digest authentication

GET https://api.example.com/protected
Authorization: Digest username password

VS CodeJetBrainshttpyac

The client handles the challenge-response flow automatically.

AWS Signature v4

GET https://service.amazonaws.com/resource
Authorization: AWS accessKeyId secretAccessKey token:sessionToken region:us-east-1 service:s3

VS Codehttpyackulala

JetBrains does not have built-in AWS auth.

AWS Cognito

VS Code

GET https://api.example.com/protected
Authorization: COGNITO username password region userPoolId clientId

Unique to VS Code REST Client.

OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect

httpyac has the most comprehensive OAuth2 support with multiple grant types:

GET https://api.example.com/protected
Authorization: openid client_credentials myPrefix

Supported flows: authorization_code (with optional PKCE), implicit, password, client_credentials, device_code, and token exchange. Variables configure endpoints: {{prefix}}_tokenEndpoint, {{prefix}}_clientId, etc.

VS Code REST Client supports Azure AD tokens via {{$aadToken}}, {{$aadV2Token}}, and generic OIDC via {{$oidcAccessToken}}.

JetBrains supports OAuth 2.0 through IDE-integrated dialogs rather than in-file syntax.

kulala.nvim supports OAuth2, Negotiate, and SSL auth.

NTLM/Kerberos

JetBrainskulala

JetBrains uses @use-os-credentials metadata to use OS-level credentials.

Client certificates

See Section 16: SSL & Certificates for SSL/certificate configuration details.

Feature	VS Code	JetBrains	httpyac	VS 2022	kulala
Basic authentication (auto Base64 encoding) VS 2022 does not document automatic Base64 encoding for Basic auth.	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓
Digest authentication	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓
AWS Signature v4	✓	✗	✓	✗	✓
AWS Cognito Unique to VS Code REST Client.	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗
OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect VS Code: Azure AD tokens. JetBrains: IDE dialogs. httpyac: full grant type support.	◐	◐	✓	✗	✓
NTLM/Kerberos JetBrains: @use-os-credentials.	✗	✓	✗	✗	✓
SSL client certificates Each uses different config format. See SSL & Certificates spec.	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗
@no-redirect VS 2022 does not document metadata tags beyond @name.	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓
@no-cookie-jar VS 2022 does not document metadata tags beyond @name.	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓