FAQ

Answers to the most common questions about Tiger: where your data lives, licensing, platforms, migrating from other tools, SOAP support, proxy setup, and how updates work.

The basics

Is Tiger a free Postman alternative?

Yes. Tiger is a free, open source (MIT) API client for macOS, Windows and Linux that covers the everyday Postman workflow: collections, environments, auth, scripts and tests, a collection runner and imports from Postman. It needs no account and stores everything as plain files on your computer.

Does Tiger work offline, and do I need an account?

Tiger works fully offline and needs no account or sign-in. Requests go straight from your computer to the API you are calling, and collections are plain files in a folder you choose.

How is Tiger different from Bruno and Insomnia?

Like Bruno, Tiger is open source and stores collections as plain files you can commit to Git. Tiger also includes a built-in MCP server for AI assistants, WSDL/SOAP import, client certificates (mTLS), a Load test tab and Team sync. Insomnia offers optional cloud sync and account sign-in, while Tiger has neither. The comparison pages have the full tables.

What is the Tiger MCP server?

Tiger includes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. Register it in Claude Desktop, Cursor or another MCP client and the assistant can list your requests and environments, read a request, and run it, using your real URLs, auth and variables. It runs locally and your collection stays on disk.

Does Tiger have load testing?

Yes. The Load test tab of a request sends it a set number of times with bounded concurrency and reports min, max, average, p50 and p95 timings.

Privacy and data

Where does our API data live?

On your machines and in your Git repositories, nowhere else. Tiger has no cloud backend, no sync service and no accounts. Request definitions, environment values, tokens and response data never leave your infrastructure.

Does Tiger phone home or collect my request data?

Tiger never records or transmits URLs, hostnames, header values, request bodies or response payloads. It sends only lightweight usage events to help prioritize development:

• App opened
• Request sent (HTTP method and status-code bucket only - for example "POST 2xx")
• Collection imported (source and count of requests, no names or URLs)

The only identifier is a random app-local ID generated on first launch. There is no user account, no email address, and no way to tie events back to a person.

You can turn analytics off at any time: open Settings and disable the toggle under Privacy. The setting takes effect immediately.

Licensing and cost

Is Tiger open source?

Yes. Tiger is released under the MIT license. The full source code is available at github.com/jtaoufik/tiger. You can read it, fork it, modify it, and distribute it under the terms of that license.

Can we use it commercially? What does it cost per seat?

Tiger is free to download and use, including for commercial work. There are no seats, no license keys, and no registration. Advanced team features may become paid in a future release; pricing will be announced before anything changes for existing users.

Platforms and installation

Which operating systems does Tiger run on?

Tiger runs natively on macOS, Windows and Linux. All three platforms receive the same feature set.

Downloads are on the GitHub Releases page.

How do updates work?

Tiger checks for new releases on GitHub automatically at startup and shows a changelog notification when one is available. On macOS and Linux (AppImage) the update can be applied in-app via electron-updater without leaving the application. On Windows the in-app updater tells you when a new version is out. You can also always download the latest build directly from the releases page.

Migrating from other tools

How do we migrate off Postman?

In Postman, export each collection as Collection v2.0 or Collection v2.1 JSON. Then in Tiger open the import dialog (Cmd+Shift+I on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows/Linux) and pick that file.

What carries over:

• Folder hierarchy and request order
• Request method, URL, headers and query parameters
• Body (JSON, form, raw, GraphQL)
• Auth settings (Bearer, Basic, API key)
• {{variable}} references in all fields

Environment variables are not embedded in Postman exports - you will enter them once in a Tiger environment file. OAuth 2.0 tokens are not exported by Postman either; configure them in Tiger's auth panel after import.

Collections can be exported back to Postman v2.1 format from the collection's context menu if you ever need to move in the other direction.

How do we migrate off Insomnia?

In Insomnia, use Application > Export Data > All and save as a v4 JSON export. Import that file in Tiger. Folders, requests, headers, query params, bodies and auth all transfer. Environment groups become Tiger environment files.

How do we migrate from Bruno?

Point Tiger's importer at the Bruno collection folder (the directory containing .bru files). Tiger reads the folder structure directly - no export step needed in Bruno.

Can we import from an OpenAPI or Swagger spec?

Yes. Tiger imports OpenAPI 3 (JSON or YAML) and Swagger 2 (JSON or YAML) specs. Each path + method combination becomes a request, with parameters mapped to query params and headers as appropriate and example request bodies pre-filled where the spec provides them. Collections can also be exported to OpenAPI 3.0 from the collection context menu.

Can I import a curl command?

Yes. Paste a curl command into the import dialog and Tiger converts it into a request, preserving the method, URL, headers (-H), request body (-d / --data), and basic auth (-u).

SOAP and WSDL

Does Tiger support SOAP APIs?

Yes, starting in version 0.4.0. Tiger can import a .wsdl file and turn each binding operation into a ready-to-use POST request. The generated request includes:

• A pre-filled SOAP envelope body with placeholder values for each input element
• A Content-Type header set to text/xml; charset=utf-8 (SOAP 1.1) or application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8 (SOAP 1.2)
• A SOAPAction header populated from the WSDL binding (SOAP 1.1 only)

Both SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2 are detected automatically on a per-operation basis. After import you replace the placeholder values in the envelope with {{variable}} references or literal values before sending.

You can also send SOAP requests without a WSDL: create a request, set the method to POST, set the body type to XML, and paste your envelope directly.

Networking and corporate environments

Does it work behind a corporate proxy?

Yes. Tiger supports HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS proxies. Configure the proxy address in Settings > Network. Proxy settings apply to all requests.

Our internal APIs use self-signed or private CA certificates. Can we still use Tiger?

Yes. You have two options:

• Disable SSL verification - toggle it off per request or globally in Settings. Useful for development environments where you control both sides.
• Custom CA bundle - import your organization's root certificate as a PEM file in Settings. All requests will trust that CA without disabling verification entirely.

Client certificate authentication (mTLS) is also supported. Add a PEM key/cert pair or a PFX/PKCS12 file in the request's auth panel.

How do we deploy Tiger company-wide?

Use the standard installers. On macOS, distribute the DMG via your MDM (Jamf, Mosyle, Kandji). On Windows, use the Setup installer with your existing software deployment tooling, or push the portable EXE. On Linux, the AppImage is self-contained; the .deb integrates with apt. There are no license keys or accounts to provision.

Collaboration

How does a team collaborate without a sync server?

With the Git workflow you already run. Collections are plain text files, so sharing is a repository, review is a pull request, and history is git log. New engineers get everything with git clone. Conflicts are rare (one request per file) and resolve cleanly in any text editor or merge tool.

Can two people edit the same request at the same time?

Tiger does not provide real-time collaborative editing. Because each request is a separate file, two people modifying different requests in the same collection will not conflict. Two people modifying the same .tiger file simultaneously will produce a normal Git merge conflict, which they resolve with standard tools.

More questions

Check the pages below for deeper detail on specific topics, or open a GitHub Discussion if your question is not covered here.