Crate wscat_rs 

wscat-rs

A WebSocket client for the command line, similar to netcat but for WebSocket connections.

This crate provides a CLI tool that can connect to WebSocket servers (both ws:// and wss://), send and receive messages interactively, and optionally use slash commands for WebSocket-specific operations like ping/pong and connection closing.

Features

• Connect to WebSocket servers using ws:// or wss:// protocols
• Skip TLS certificate validation with --insecure flag
• Send custom headers with the initial WebSocket handshake
• Specify WebSocket subprotocols
• Interactive slash commands (/ping, /pong, /close)
• TTY-aware output formatting (prefixes messages with < when stdout is a terminal)
• Verbose mode to see request details
• Dry-run mode to preview the connection without actually connecting

Usage

Basic connection:

wscat-rs -c wss://echo.websocket.org

With custom headers and subprotocol:

wscat-rs -c wss://example.com --header "Authorization: Bearer token" --protocol graphql-ws

With slash commands enabled:

wscat-rs -c wss://example.com --slash
# Then in the session:
# /ping hello
# /close 1000 goodbye

Library Usage

While primarily designed as a CLI tool, the slash command parsing functionality is exposed for library use:

use wscat_rs::parse_slash_command;
use tokio_tungstenite::tungstenite::Message;
 
if let Some(msg) = parse_slash_command("/ping hello") {
    match msg {
        Message::Ping(data) => println!("Ping with data: {:?}", data),
        _ => {}
    }
}

Re-exports

pub use slash::parse_slash_command;

Modules

slash

Slash command parsing for interactive WebSocket control.