Request Body

To send payloads to an API (such as in POST, PUT, or PATCH requests), Rumour provides a structured [body] block. Rumour supports robust dynamic values, automatic Content-Type synchronization, and path-based file uploads.

1. Syntax & Configuration

For sending payloads, specify a dedicated [body] section in your TOML request file:

[body]
type = "json"
raw = """
{
  "name": "Jane Smith",
  "role": "developer"
}
"""

Fields

type: The serialization format. Supported formats include:
- json (Default): Sets Content-Type: application/json.
- text: Sets Content-Type: text/plain.
- form: URL-encoded or multipart form data.
- urlencoded: Sets Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded.
- xml: Sets Content-Type: application/xml.
- binary: Sets Content-Type: application/octet-stream.
raw: The content of the body. You can use TOML's triple-quote (""") multiline string syntax for formatting complex payloads like raw JSON or XML blocks.

Content-Type Header Sync

When using the [body] table, Rumour automatically computes and injects the corresponding standard Content-Type header unless you have explicitly overridden the header in your [headers] section.

2. Directory Structure

To demonstrate all request body types, we use a dataset containing different body payloads. The directory structure is organized as follows:

body_example/
├── workspace.env.toml
├── body_example.config.toml
├── body_example.suite.toml
├── auth/
│   ├── auth.suite.toml
│   └── requests/
│       └── login.toml
└── users/
    ├── users.suite.toml
    └── requests/
        ├── assets/
        │   ├── data.bin
        │   └── test_pic.png
        ├── create_user.toml
        ├── download_image.toml
        ├── post_binary.toml
        ├── post_form.toml
        ├── post_text.toml
        ├── post_urlencoded.toml
        └── post_xml.toml

3. Explaining Body Types with Examples

Below is a breakdown of how to use each body type, including the TOML requests and the verbose output traces.

A. JSON (Default)

The json type serializes the raw string and attaches a Content-Type: application/json header. Variables inside the raw JSON payload are dynamically resolved.

Request File: `users/requests/create_user.toml`

# users/requests/create_user.toml
[dependencies]
"../../auth/requests/login.toml" = "token"

[request]
method = "POST"
url = "{{base_url}}/post"

[headers]
Authorization = "Bearer {{../../auth/requests/login.token}}"

[body]
type = "json"
raw = """
{
  "name": "Jane Smith",
  "client": "{{client_name}}",
  "stage": "{{env.ENV_STAGE}}",
  "key": "{{vault.SECURE_KEY}}",
  "timestamp": "{{timestamp}}",
  "nonce": "req-{{random}}"
}
"""

[variables]
client_name = "RumourTestAgent/2.0"

Command

RUMOUR_VAULT_PASS=mypassword123 rumour run users/requests/create_user.toml -tv

Output Trace

  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  Header: Content-Type: application/json
  URL: https://httpbin.org/post
  Body (json): {"username": "admin", "token": "session_secret_xyz123"}
  ✓ SUCCESS: /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/auth/requests/login.toml (5484ms)
  
  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  Header: Authorization: Bearer session_secret_xyz123
  Header: Content-Type: application/json
  URL: https://httpbin.org/post
  Body (json): {
  "name": "Jane Smith",
  "client": "RumourTestAgent/2.0",
  "stage": "staging",
  "key": "super_secure_vault_value_987",
  "timestamp": "1779390967347",
  "nonce": "req-9dfbc001"
}
  ✓ SUCCESS: /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/create_user.toml (1611ms)
    ✓ login.toml → PASS (0 Pass, 0 Fail, 0 Skip)
    ✓ create_user.toml → PASS (1 Pass, 0 Fail, 0 Skip)
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ RUMOUR EXECUTION REPORT                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Total Requests:      2                                                   │
│ Successful:          2                                                   │
│ Failed:              0                                                   │
│ Skipped:             0                                                   │
│ Success Rate:        100.0%                                              │
│ Total Time:          7095ms                                              │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

✓ Successful Requests:
  - /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/auth/requests/login.toml  [200] [5484ms]
  - /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/create_user.toml  [200] [1611ms]

Actionable Recommendations:
  → Run with --json to export this report for your CI/CD pipeline.

B. Plain Text

The text type is used to transmit raw string sequences. It defaults the Content-Type header to text/plain.

Request File: `users/requests/post_text.toml`

# users/requests/post_text.toml
[request]
method = "POST"
url = "{{base_url}}/post"

[headers]
Content-Type = "text/plain"

[body]
type = "text"
raw = "Hello, this is a plain text body payload!"

Command

rumour run users/requests/post_text.toml -tv

Output Trace

  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  Header: Content-Type: text/plain
  URL: https://httpbin.org/post
  Body (text): Hello, this is a plain text body payload!
  ✓ SUCCESS: /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_text.toml (1347ms)
    ✓ /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_text.toml → PASS (1 Pass, 0 Fail, 0 Skip)                                            
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ RUMOUR EXECUTION REPORT                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Total Requests:      1                                                   │
│ Successful:          1                                                   │
│ Failed:              0                                                   │
│ Skipped:             0                                                   │
│ Success Rate:        100.0%                                              │
│ Total Time:          1348ms                                              │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

✓ Successful Requests:
  - /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_text.toml  [200] [1348ms]

Actionable Recommendations:
  → Run with --json to export this report for your CI/CD pipeline.

C. URL-Encoded Form

The urlencoded type formats the payload as application/x-www-form-urlencoded key-value pairs separated by ampersands.

Request File: `users/requests/post_urlencoded.toml`

# users/requests/post_urlencoded.toml
[request]
method = "POST"
url = "{{base_url}}/post"

[body]
type = "urlencoded"
raw = "username=admin&role=developer&status=active"

Command

rumour run users/requests/post_urlencoded.toml -tv

Output Trace

  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  Header: Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
  URL: https://httpbin.org/post
  Body (urlencoded): username=admin&role=developer&status=active
  ✓ SUCCESS: /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_urlencoded.toml (2211ms)
    ✓ /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_urlencoded.toml → PASS (1 Pass, 0 Fail, 0 Skip)                                      
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ RUMOUR EXECUTION REPORT                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Total Requests:      1                                                   │
│ Successful:          1                                                   │
│ Failed:              0                                                   │
│ Skipped:             0                                                   │
│ Success Rate:        100.0%                                              │
│ Total Time:          2213ms                                              │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

✓ Successful Requests:
  - /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_urlencoded.toml  [200] [2213ms]

Actionable Recommendations:
  → Run with --json to export this report for your CI/CD pipeline.

D. Multipart Form-Data

The form type is used to build standard multipart form data.

Values are specified line-by-line using key = value syntax.
To attach files, prepend @ to the file path (e.g., @assets/test_pic.png). File paths are resolved relative to the directory containing the request TOML file.

Request File: `users/requests/post_form.toml`

# users/requests/post_form.toml
[request]
method = "POST"
url = "{{base_url}}/post"

[body]
type = "form"
raw = """
username = admin
profile_pic = @assets/test_pic.png
"""

Command

rumour run users/requests/post_form.toml -tv

Output Trace

  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  Header: Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=------------------------24ef130f1d3c01f6
  URL: https://httpbin.org/post
  ✓ SUCCESS: /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_form.toml (2964ms)
    ✓ /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_form.toml → PASS (1 Pass, 0 Fail, 0 Skip)                                            
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ RUMOUR EXECUTION REPORT                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Total Requests:      1                                                   │
│ Successful:          1                                                   │
│ Failed:              0                                                   │
│ Skipped:             0                                                   │
│ Success Rate:        100.0%                                              │
│ Total Time:          4201ms                                              │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

✓ Successful Requests:
  - /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_form.toml  [200] [4201ms]

Actionable Recommendations:
  → Run with --json to export this report for your CI/CD pipeline.

E. XML

The xml type transmits raw structured XML payloads. To inform the target API, explicitly add Content-Type = "application/xml" in your [headers] section.

Request File: `users/requests/post_xml.toml`

# users/requests/post_xml.toml
[request]
method = "POST"
url = "{{base_url}}/post"

[headers]
Content-Type = "application/xml"

[body]
type = "xml"
raw = """
<user>
  <name>Jane Smith</name>
  <role>developer</role>
</user>
"""

Command

rumour run users/requests/post_xml.toml -tv

Output Trace

  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  Header: Content-Type: application/xml
  URL: https://httpbin.org/post
  Body (xml): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<request>
  <user>
    <username>john_doe</username>
    <email>john@example.com</email>
  </user>
</request>
  ✓ SUCCESS: /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_xml.toml (2144ms)
    ✓ /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_xml.toml → PASS (1 Pass, 0 Fail, 0 Skip)                                             
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ RUMOUR EXECUTION REPORT                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Total Requests:      1                                                   │
│ Successful:          1                                                   │
│ Failed:              0                                                   │
│ Skipped:             0                                                   │
│ Success Rate:        100.0%                                              │
│ Total Time:          2145ms                                              │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

✓ Successful Requests:
  - /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_xml.toml  [200] [2145ms]

Actionable Recommendations:
  → Run with --json to export this report for your CI/CD pipeline.

F. Binary Stream

The binary type is used to upload raw byte streams. It sets the Content-Type header to application/octet-stream.

Prepend @ to a file path (e.g. @assets/data.bin) to read and stream the file's raw bytes. The file path is resolved relative to the request TOML file's location.
If the value does not start with @, Rumour will transmit the raw string text directly.

Request File: `users/requests/post_binary.toml`

# users/requests/post_binary.toml
[request]
method = "POST"
url = "{{base_url}}/post"

[body]
type = "binary"
raw = "@assets/data.bin"

Command

rumour run users/requests/post_binary.toml -tv

Output Trace

  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  Header: Content-Type: application/octet-stream
  URL: https://httpbin.org/post
  Body (binary): @assets/data.bin
  ✓ SUCCESS: /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/post_binary.toml (349ms)

4. Handling Binary Responses & File Downloads

When an API returns raw file payloads (such as images, music, or videos), Rumour automatically manages downloading and persisting the response stream to prevent terminal bloat and resource exhaustion.

A. Mime Type Detection

Rumour inspects the Content-Type header returned by the server.

If the content type starts with text/, or contains json, xml, javascript, yaml, toml (or is empty), the response is processed as a standard Text response.
If the response is not classified as text (e.g., image/png, audio/mpeg, video/mp4), it is processed as a Binary response.

B. Automatic Saving Rules

Binary payloads of any size are automatically written to disk.
Text payloads larger than 2MB are also automatically saved to disk to maintain performance.

C. Filename Resolution Priority

Rumour determines the name of the saved file based on the following hierarchy:

Content-Disposition: Looks for a filename= attribute inside the response headers.
URL Path segment: If the last portion of the URL path contains a dot extension (e.g. https://filesamples.com/samples/video/mp4/sample_640x360.mp4 resolves to sample_640x360.mp4).
Fallback UUID: If no name can be resolved from headers or the URL path, Rumour generates a random UUID and infers the correct file extension (e.g., .png, .mp3) by parsing the magic bytes of the payload.

D. Overriding the Download Directory

By default, files are downloaded to /tmp/rumour/responses/. You can specify a custom directory using the --download-dir (or -d) CLI flag:

Request File: `users/requests/download_image.toml`

# users/requests/download_image.toml
[request]
method = "GET"
url = "https://httpbin.org/image/png"

Command

rumour run users/requests/download_image.toml -tv -d downloads

Output Trace

  GET https://httpbin.org/image/png
  URL: https://httpbin.org/image/png
  ✓ SUCCESS: /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/download_image.toml (1257ms)
    ✓ /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/download_image.toml → PASS (1 Pass, 0 Fail, 0 Skip)                                       
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ RUMOUR EXECUTION REPORT                                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Total Requests:      1                                                   │
│ Successful:          1                                                   │
│ Failed:              0                                                   │
│ Skipped:             0                                                   │
│ Success Rate:        100.0%                                              │
│ Total Time:          1258ms                                              │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

✓ Successful Requests:
  - /home/bugsfounder/workspace/testing/body_example/users/requests/download_image.toml  [200] [1258ms]

Actionable Recommendations:
  → Run with --json to export this report for your CI/CD pipeline.

The downloaded file is saved inside the downloads directory with a name like 41bbc361-0486-442a-91ce-d05adc50bde9.png (using the inferred .png format extension).

E. JSON Report Schema Attributes

When running in automation or pipeline systems (using the --json option), the execution report details where the file was saved:

body: Contains a short verification message (e.g., [Binary Data: 8090 bytes saved to downloads/41bbc361-0486-442a-91ce-d05adc50bde9.png]).
body_path: The file path pointing to the saved file (e.g., downloads/41bbc361-0486-442a-91ce-d05adc50bde9.png).

Handling Anti-Bot & Throttled Downloads

Some servers (such as public file hosting sites protected by Cloudflare) may block or throttle client download requests that do not specify a standard browser identity.

If a download request hangs, times out, or fails with a 403 Forbidden or 429 Too Many Requests status, you can bypass anti-bot protection by adding a standard browser User-Agent header inside your request TOML file's [headers] section:

[headers]
User-Agent = "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"

1. Syntax & Configuration​

Fields​

2. Directory Structure​

3. Explaining Body Types with Examples​

A. JSON (Default)​

Request File: users/requests/create_user.toml​

Command​

Output Trace​

B. Plain Text​

Request File: users/requests/post_text.toml​

Command​

Output Trace​

C. URL-Encoded Form​

Request File: users/requests/post_urlencoded.toml​

Command​

Output Trace​

D. Multipart Form-Data​

Request File: users/requests/post_form.toml​

Command​

Output Trace​

E. XML​

Request File: users/requests/post_xml.toml​

Command​

Output Trace​

F. Binary Stream​

Request File: users/requests/post_binary.toml​

Command​

Output Trace​

4. Handling Binary Responses & File Downloads​

A. Mime Type Detection​

B. Automatic Saving Rules​

C. Filename Resolution Priority​

D. Overriding the Download Directory​

Request File: users/requests/download_image.toml​

Command​

Output Trace​

E. JSON Report Schema Attributes​

1. Syntax & Configuration

Fields

2. Directory Structure

3. Explaining Body Types with Examples

A. JSON (Default)

Request File: `users/requests/create_user.toml`

Command

Output Trace

B. Plain Text

Request File: `users/requests/post_text.toml`

Command

Output Trace

C. URL-Encoded Form

Request File: `users/requests/post_urlencoded.toml`

Command

Output Trace

D. Multipart Form-Data

Request File: `users/requests/post_form.toml`

Command

Output Trace

E. XML

Request File: `users/requests/post_xml.toml`

Command

Output Trace

F. Binary Stream

Request File: `users/requests/post_binary.toml`

Command

Output Trace

4. Handling Binary Responses & File Downloads

A. Mime Type Detection

B. Automatic Saving Rules

C. Filename Resolution Priority

D. Overriding the Download Directory

Request File: `users/requests/download_image.toml`

Command

Output Trace

E. JSON Report Schema Attributes