curl flags & options

-X, --request

Set the HTTP method. Defaults to GET.

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/data

curl -X DELETE https://api.example.com/items/1

-H, --header

Add a custom request header.

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://api.example.com

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN" https://api.example.com

-d, --data

Send data in a POST request body. Automatically sets method to POST.

curl -d '{"key":"value"}' -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://api.example.com

curl -d "user=joe&pass=secret" https://example.com/login

-o, --output

Write output to a file instead of stdout.

curl -o page.html https://example.com

curl -o /dev/null -s -w "%{http_code}" https://example.com

-O, --remote-name

Save file using the remote filename.

curl -O https://example.com/file.tar.gz

-L, --location

Follow redirects (3xx responses).

curl -L https://example.com/short-link

-v, --verbose

Show detailed request and response info including headers.

curl -v https://example.com

-s, --silent

Suppress progress meter and error messages.

curl -s https://api.example.com/data | jq .

-f, --fail

Return an error code (22) on HTTP errors instead of outputting the error page.

curl -f https://example.com/missing || echo "Request failed"

-I, --head

Fetch headers only (HEAD request).

curl -I https://example.com

-k, --insecure

Skip TLS certificate verification. Useful for self-signed certs in development.

curl -k https://localhost:8443/api

-u, --user

Provide username and password for server authentication.

curl -u user:password https://api.example.com/private