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

Step 2, Create .env file

Pro tip: Skip the password if you’re testing, it defaults to "password" on first boot.

Step 3, Create docker-compose.yaml

Step 4, Boot it up

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:

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:

Or even better, define a reusable token:

And use:

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 password unless you set one.

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