Bowire vs. Bruno
Bruno keeps collections as plain files in git. Bowire shares the local-first stance and adds discovery, record & replay, mocks and many more protocols.
When Bruno is the better fit
Pick Bruno when Git-native collections are your priority — REST / GraphQL / basic gRPC with .bru files committed to your repo. No cloud, no account, just text files reviewed like code.
When Bowire is the better fit
Pick Bowire when you need gRPC streaming, GraphQL subscriptions, SignalR hubs, MQTT topics, Socket.IO, or the workbench embedded in your ASP.NET service.
Where they differ
Only the rows where Bruno and Bowire differ, from the full comparison. Rows we could not verify for Bruno are left out rather than guessed. Facts as of 2026-08; correct one.
| Feature | Bruno | Bowire |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-protocol supportBruno: REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket | 4 | 20+ |
| gRPC | ✗ | ✓ |
| SOAPBowire: WSDL 1.1 discovery, 1.1 + 1.2 envelopes | ✗ | ✓ |
| GraphQLBruno: Queries + mutations; no subscriptions | partial | ✓ |
| SignalR | ✗ | ✓ |
| MCP | ✗ | ✓ |
| JSON-RPCBowire: OpenRPC rpc.discover | ✗ | ✓ |
| SSE | ✗ | ✓ |
| MQTT | ✗ | ✓ |
| AMQPBowire: 0.9.1 RabbitMQ + 1.0 | ✗ | ✓ |
| NATSBowire: core + JetStream + Services API | ✗ | ✓ |
| Socket.IO | ✗ | ✓ |
| OData | ✗ | ✓ |
| AsyncAPIBowire: discovery source — routes to MQTT / Kafka / WS wires | ✗ | ✓ |
| Surgewave | ✗ | ✓ |
| Kafka | ✗ | ✓ |
| Apache Pulsar | ✗ | ✓ |
| DIS (IEEE 1278) | ✗ | ✓ |
| UDP (raw datagrams) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Akka.NET (mailbox tap) | ✗ | ✓ |
| TacticalAPI (situational awareness)Bowire: v1.0.0 stable — descriptor discovery, typed CRUD, server-streaming track pump, the lot | ✗ | ✓ |
| OTLP (OpenTelemetry listener)Bowire: Passive listener — receive traces / metrics / logs from the services under test; first-party opt-in package | ✗ | ✓ |
| Custom protocol plugins | ✗ | ✓ |
| Auto-discoveryBruno: Manual endpoint configuration required | manual | ✓ |
| gRPC Reflection | ✗ | ✓ |
| Proto file loading | ✗ | ✓ |
| Service catalogue (Consul / Kubernetes) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Schema drift watch | ✗ | ✓ |
| Embedded in ASP.NET app | ✗ | ✓ |
| Kubernetes / HelmBruno: Manual K8s manifest required | manual | planned |
| SSO / SCIM | ✗ | ✓ |
| Native .NET | ✗ | ✓ |
| Record + replay | ✗ | ✓ |
| Record session | ✗ | ✓ |
| Replay against env | ✗ | ✓ |
| HAR export | ✗ | ✓ |
| Convert to test assertions | ✗ | ✓ |
| Correlated multi-protocol timeline | ✗ | ✓ |
| Native export format | .bru | .bwr |
| Replay as mock server | ✗ | ✓ |
| Mock from schema (no recording)Bowire: bowire mock --schema (OpenAPI 3 doc), --grpc-schema (FileDescriptorSet), or --graphql-schema (SDL) → running mock, no traffic capture needed | ✗ | ✓ |
| Mock engine depth | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multiple duplex channelsBruno: One channel at a time (serial, not parallel) | one at a time | ✓ |
| Visual flow editor | ✗ | ✓ |
| Branching (if / else) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Loops | ✗ | ✓ |
| Delays / wait steps | ✗ | ✓ |
| Variable forwarding | ✗ | ✓ |
| Per-step assertions | ✗ | ✓ |
| Performance / load testing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Contract testing (consumer / provider) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Snapshot testingBowire: exact | structural modes, __snapshots__ baselines committed to git, --update-snapshots re-baselining | ✗ | ✓ |
| Data-driven test runsBruno: CLI datasetsBowire: Per-step datasets — inline rows, CSV, or generator | CLI | ✓ |
| Endpoint test coverageBowire: Per-method run history + coverage chips in the Discover sidebar — see which endpoints regression runs actually touch | ✗ | ✓ |
| Security scanning | ✗ | ✓ OWASP API Top 10 |
| Out-of-band (OAST) detection | ✗ | ✓ |
| API monitoring / scheduled probes | ✗ | ✓ local |
| Traffic interception / reverse proxyBowire: In-process app.UseBowireInterceptor() middleware plus a YARP-based standalone reverse proxy; Intercept rail with Captured | Live overrides | Mock servers | ✗ | ✓ |
| AI assistant (local-first, BYOK) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Public API catalogBowire: Internal catalogue built in (browsable in the workbench + bowire catalogue list|providers|use|clear); public hosted docs via the Surgewave Registry | ✗ | internal ✓ / public via Registry |
| Try-It-Out widget | ✗ | via client |
| API versioning | ✗ | via Surgewave Registry |
| Catalog / searchBowire: Built-in catalogue — local file / HTTP / Consul / Kubernetes / Agent providers (bowire catalogue); public sharing via the Surgewave Registry | ✗ | ✓ built-in |
| MCP adapter | ✗ | ✓ every protocol |
| Tools capability | ✗ | ✓ |
| Resources capabilityBowire: 8 resources: bowire://environments, bowire://recordings (+/{id}), bowire://collections (+/{id}), bowire://flows (+/{id}), bowire://plugins | ✗ | ✓ |
| Prompts capabilityBowire: 4 prompts: replay-recording, compare-responses, fuzz-method, scan-service | ✗ | ✓ |
| stdio transport | ✗ | ✓ |
| Streamable HTTP transport | ✗ | ✓ |
| Platform ops as MCP tools | ✗ | ✓ 15 tools |
| Recording start / stopBowire: bowire.record.start / .stop / .list | ✗ | ✓ |
| Environment listBowire: bowire.env.list — read-only enumeration; an environment-switch tool is tracked in the v2.9 MCP-completion milestone | ✗ | ✓ |
| Replay executeBowire: bowire.record.replay | ✗ | ✓ |
| Mock spin-upBowire: bowire.mock.start / .stop / .list | ✗ | ✓ |
| License | MIT | Apache 2.0 |
● supported · ◐ partial or paid tier · ○ not supported
Moving over from Bruno
Bowire has no .bru importer yet — that is #674. Bruno exports a collection in other formats, and Bowire reads two of them today:
- Postman Collection. Export the collection as a Postman Collection in Bruno, then click Import Postman in Bowire's Compose rail. Method, URL, headers and body carry over; scripts and tests don't. See Postman Collection import.
- OpenAPI. Export as an OpenAPI specification and drop the file on Bowire's Schema Files tab.
- Or skip the export and point Bowire at the running service — discovery covers OpenAPI, gRPC and GraphQL.