Be honest, Postman’s gotten too big. Between team workspaces, cloud syncs, and pricing tiers, sometimes you just want a simple, no-nonsense API testing tool you can run yourself. That’s where YAade (Yet Another API Development Environment) quietly shines.
And the best part? You can run it in under 2 minutes on your own Debian server.
Why YAade?
YAade is an open-source, self-hosted API client that feels like Postman… but simpler, faster, and fully local. It runs as a web app, uses an embedded database, and lets you organize requests, environments, and collections. Best of all, you don’t even need to create an account — just run it, and start testing.
Setting Up YAade with Docker on Debian
First, let’s set it up on your server using Docker Compose:
Step 1, Project folder
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mkdir -p /var/app/yaade cd /var/app/yaade |
Step 2, Create .env file
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YAADE_ADMIN_USERNAME=admin # You can omit the password — defaults to "password" if not set |
Pro tip: Skip the password if you’re testing, it defaults to
"password"on first boot.
Step 3, Create docker-compose.yaml
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services: yaade: image: ghcr.io/esperotech/yaade:latest container_name: yaade restart: unless-stopped env_file: - .env ports: - "9339:9339" volumes: - yaade-data:/app/data volumes: yaade-data: |
Step 4, Boot it up
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docker compose up -d |
Then visit: http://your-server-ip:9339
Login with:
- Username:
admin - Password:
password(unless you set it)
Switching from Extension to Server Proxy
By default, YAade tries to use the browser extension to run requests. If you’re self-hosting, just open your environment settings and change:
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Proxy: Extension → Server |
No extension needed. All requests will be sent through the backend.
Auth Workaround: Bearer Token?
YAade doesn’t have a dedicated “Bearer Token” auth type — but you can still add it manually under Headers:
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Authorization: Bearer <your-token> |
Or even better, define a reusable token:
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{ "bearer_token": "eyJhbGciOi..." } |
And use:
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Authorization: Bearer {{bearer_token}} |
in any request header. Lightweight, flexible, done.
Sharing Collections and Groups
You can create a group, add users (who self-register), and share collections with fine-grained permissions. For now, everyone gets "password" as their default password, which you can change after logging in.
Final Thoughts
YAade is refreshingly simple. No cloud sync. No bloat. Just a powerful, fast API client you can fully own.
Whether you’re running an internal dev team, managing APIs behind a firewall, or just want a local Postman replacement, give YAade a spin.
And remember,
The first user’s password is always
passwordunless you set one.