HttpInspector.AspNetCore 1.6.0

HttpInspector.AspNetCore

A Zero-Config Live HTTP Inspector for ASP.NET Core

HttpInspector.AspNetCore provides a built-in, real-time view of incoming and outgoing HTTP traffic inside any ASP.NET Core application.
It captures the complete request lifecycle and exposes it through a polished, embedded dashboard ideal for development, testing, QA, CI pipelines, and microservice debugging.

It is not a replacement for ELK, Seq, or Application Insights.
Instead, it fills the gap between “no visibility at all” and “full observability stack,” and does so with almost no setup.

💡 Philosophy

HttpInspector focuses on being:

• Fast to enable
• Effortless to use
• Powerful for debugging
• Zero-infrastructure
• In-app and self-contained

It provides immediate clarity into what the API is doing right now, especially in complex request chains — all without the overhead of full observability stacks.

🎮 Live Demo

See HttpInspector in action:

👉 Live HttpInspector demo

Experience the live dashboard with:

• Real-time HTTP traffic monitoring
• Request/response inspection
• Outgoing HTTP request tracking
• Interactive request replay & editing
• All features running in a live ASP.NET Core application

Try triggering some API calls and watch them appear instantly in the dashboard!

🚀 Quick Start

Enable HttpInspector with two lines:

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

#if DEBUG
builder.Services.AddHttpInspector();
#endif

var app = builder.Build();

#if DEBUG
app.UseHttpInspector();
#endif

app.Run();

🖼 Dashboard Preview

1. Install the NuGet package:

   dotnet add package HttpInspector.AspNetCore --version 1.6.0
   

2. Use the Quick Start Guide to set up the package in your ASP.NET project
3. Open the dashboard:

http://localhost:<port>/http-inspector

✨ Features

🎛 Real-time visual dashboard

Access /http-inspector to see:

• Live stream of captured HTTP traffic
• Expandable request/response panels
• Syntax-highlighted JSON bodies
• Duration bars & status color coding
• Free-text, method, and status filters
• Smooth, responsive UI designed for developers
• Supports static time ranges as well as real-time updates

🔗 Outgoing HTTP request tracking

Automatically captures all HttpClient calls triggered during request processing.

• Child → parent correlation
• URL, method, headers, body
• Response status and duration
• End-to-end request chain visibility

How to opt-in

Enable outgoing HTTP request tracking in your configuration:

builder.Services.AddHttpInspector(options =>
{
    options.EnableOutgoingTracking = true;
    
    // Optional: configure outgoing tracking behavior
    options.Outgoing.IncludeUrlQuery = true;
    options.Outgoing.MaxBodyLength = 4_096;
});

Then simply inject IHttpClientFactory in your endpoints or controllers:

app.MapGet("/api/external", async (IHttpClientFactory factory) =>
{
    var client = factory.CreateClient("demo-api");
    var response = await client.GetAsync("https://api.example.com/data");
    var payload = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
    return Results.Text(payload, "application/json");
});

That's it! All HTTP calls made through IHttpClientFactory will be automatically tracked and correlated with their parent requests.

🔁 Request replay & editing built-in

Replay any captured request — or fully edit it before sending.

Edit anything:

• URL and query parameters
• HTTP method
• Headers (add/remove/change)
• Body (JSON, XML, form-data, raw text)

Features:

• Instant replay via internal loopback
• Rich request editor with live preview
• Copy as:
  • curl
  • PowerShell
  • Raw HTTP
• Replay results shown directly inside the UI

🔒 Safe and configurable

• Redact sensitive headers
• Truncate large request/response bodies
• Include/exclude specific paths
• Optional authentication for the dashboard
• Configurable retention and file rotation

📦 Extensible storage

The storage layer is fully pluggable via:

public interface IHttpInspectorStore
{
    IAsyncEnumerable<JsonElement> GetEventsAsync(DateTimeOffset? since, CancellationToken ct);
}

Use the built-in JSONL file store or replace it with:

• SQLite
• SQL databases
• Cloud blob storage
• In-memory ring buffers
• Custom backends

🌐 Streaming API

Query traffic programmatically:

/http-inspector/stream?since=<timestamp>

Returns an efficient JSON array with incremental fetch capability, ideal for:

• automation
• custom dashboards
• debugging pipelines
• IDE integrations

⚙️ Optional Configuration

app.UseHttpInspector(store =>
{
    store.MaxFileSizeBytes = 5 * 1024 * 1024; // 5 MB
    store.RetainedFileCount = 4;
    store.RetainedDays = 14;
});