Insomnia

Insomnia is an open-source, cross-platform API client built by Kong, available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It supports REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets, Server-Sent Events (SSE), Socket.IO, and SOAP, and is licensed under Apache 2.0. The project has accumulated over 39,000 GitHub stars and is actively maintained with regular releases.

What It Is

Insomnia is a desktop API collaboration platform that covers the full API lifecycle: design, debugging, testing, mocking, and CI/CD automation. It operates as an Electron-based desktop app with a plugin ecosystem and a companion CLI tool called Inso. Users can work entirely offline using the local Scratch Pad without ever creating an account, or sign in to unlock collaboration, cloud sync, and enterprise governance features.

Update: Insomnia 13 GA

Version 13.0.2 was published on June 24, 2026, following the Insomnia 13 GA announcement on June 16, 2026. The headline addition is native Kong Konnect integration, which connects the Insomnia workspace directly to Kong's API catalog so teams can use Konnect as a source of truth for endpoint discovery. The release also introduces a native MCP client for testing Model Context Protocol servers, including OAuth with Dynamic Client Registration and a full MCP Auth event log. The changelog shows active development with monthly commits.

Storage and Data Locality

One of Insomnia's distinguishing design choices is its flexible storage model:

• Local Vault: 100% local storage, no cloud involvement required.
• Git Sync: Uses any third-party Git repository as the backend, bypassing cloud storage entirely.
• Cloud Sync: Optional cloud collaboration with end-to-end encryption (E2EE) available.

Enterprise plans add organization-wide storage policy enforcement, letting admins mandate local-only, Git-only, cloud-only, or hybrid configurations across teams.

AI-Native and MCP Capabilities

Insomnia's AI-native positioning centers on its native MCP client, which lets developers connect MCP servers, inspect available tools, resources, and prompts, and run tools with custom parameters to validate behavior. The platform also includes AI-powered workflows for accelerating development and catching issues early. The homepage describes this as enabling teams to "test MCP servers like you test APIs."

Enterprise and Security Features

For security-first organizations, Insomnia offers:

• OIDC and SAML SSO with SCIM for automated user provisioning and deprovisioning
• Enterprise RBAC and role-based access controls
• SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27018, and Gold CSA STAR compliance
• Private Environments that store environment configuration locally regardless of project storage setting
• Inso CLI for linting OpenAPI specs in Git pipelines and pushing specs to Kong Gateway or Kubernetes Ingress Controller

Open-Source Deployment Model

The core Insomnia application is open source under Apache License 2.0, hosted at github.com/Kong/insomnia. The repository is structured as a TypeScript monorepo. Developers can build and run Insomnia locally using Node.js and Git on Mac, Windows, or Linux. A Plugin Hub at insomnia.rest/plugins allows discovery and installation of community and official plugins. The free Essentials plan includes unlimited projects, unlimited collection runner, Git Sync for up to 3 collaborators, and no login requirement for Scratch Pad.