Tutorial

How to Capture API Requests in Chrome (Without DevTools Copy-Paste)

DevTools shows you network requests, but copying them into code is painful. There's a better way.

The problem with DevTools

Chrome DevTools is an excellent inspection tool. But if your goal is to turn a network request into runnable code — a cURL command, a Python script, a Postman collection — the workflow is clunky:

  1. Open DevTools (F12), go to Network tab
  2. Perform the action that triggers the request
  3. Find the request in the list
  4. Right-click → "Copy as cURL"
  5. Paste into your terminal or editor
  6. Manually strip out the 15 browser noise headers (sec-fetch-dest, sec-fetch-mode, etc.) that DevTools includes
  7. Manually redact the Authorization header before sharing

Every time. For every request. And if you want Python or Postman format instead of cURL, you're doing it by hand.

A faster workflow with Shripi

Shripi is a Chrome extension that captures every API call as you browse and gives you one-click export in multiple formats with secrets automatically removed.

Here's the same workflow with Shripi:

  1. Click the Shripi icon → hit "Start Capture"
  2. Perform the action
  3. Click the request in Shripi's list
  4. Click "Copy as cURL" (or Python, Fetch, Postman, HAR…)

No noise headers. No manual redaction. No format conversion.

What Shripi captures that DevTools doesn't make easy

  • Request body — Shripi captures the full request body, parsed as JSON when possible, so you can inspect what was actually sent.
  • Response body — Not just headers. The full response payload is stored alongside each request.
  • Timing and size — Duration in milliseconds and payload size for every request.
  • Cookies — Properly exported as --cookie flags in cURL or cookies={} in Python, not lumped into the headers.
  • Session history — Scroll back through everything captured since you started, not just what's visible in the current DevTools scroll.

How redaction works

By default, Shripi redacts:

  • The Authorization header value
  • Sensitive cookie names (sessionid, token, auth, etc.)
  • Sensitive query parameters (api_key, access_token, etc.)
  • Sensitive JSON body keys (password, secret, etc.)

With Shripi Pro, you can also export redacted values as ${VARIABLE_NAME} env var placeholders — so your cURL and Python snippets are safe to commit to a repo or share in Slack.

Try it

Shripi is free to install. Add it to Chrome from the homepage and start capturing in about 30 seconds.

Add Shripi to Chrome — Free
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