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Show HN: HTTP:COLON – A quick HTTP header/directive inspector and reference

httpcolon.dev
37 pointsultimoo4 comments
On HN

Hi HN -- I built HTTP:COLON, a small, open-source web tool for quickly checking a site’s HTTP response headers and learning what they mean as you go.

Link: https://httpcolon.dev/

What it does

- Enter a URL and fetch its response headers

- Groups common headers into handy buckets (cache, content, security)

- Includes short docs/tooltips for headers and directives so you can look things up while debugging. I find hovering on highlighted headers quite useful!

Supports different HTTP methods (GET/POST/PUT/DELETE)

Deep links

- You can link directly to a host, e.g. https://httpcolon.dev/www.google.com

(or any domain) to jump straight into inspecting it.

Why I made it

- I kept bouncing between DevTools, MDN, and random blog posts while debugging caching + security headers. I wanted one place that’s quick for “what am I getting back?” and “what does this header/directive do?”

It’s in beta, and I’d love feedback on:

- Missing features you’d want for day-to-day debugging (export/share formats, comparisons, presets, etc.)

Thanks!

Comments

Nice one, really helpful!

Minor nit: the input on mobile auto-capitalizes, so a link starts with "Www" which I find mildly annoying. You could force the input field all lowercase with

    <input type="text" autocapitalize="none" >
which tells modern browsers not to do this.

thanks!

Heyho. Really nice Work, Love the Design.

Maybe you have an Idea for my Feedback: IT would be cool if i can save my favorites, so i can only come Back and See Always the Same. What do you think?

Good idea, maybe I could simply store this is in the browser's local storage instead of implementing server side state.

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