Request body

The seven body types, the JSON editor’s conveniences, and the GraphQL schema explorer.

In this chapter

Choosing a body type
JSON
GraphQL
form-data
urlencoded
raw
binary
Automatic body-type detection

Choosing a body type

Open the Body tab in the request panel. A segmented selector picks the body format: none, JSON, GraphQL, form-data, urlencoded, raw, or binary. The selector’s help tip notes that the choice switches the editor and the Content-Type header sent. When a body is present, the Body tab shows a green dot and a small byte-size pill.

JSON

A Monaco code editor with JSON syntax. Beacon’s JSON editor is deliberately lenient:

Comments are allowed. You can write // line comments and /* */ block comments to annotate or temporarily disable fields.
Trailing commas are tolerated — they won’t flag as errors.

Note: Comments are stripped before the request is sent, so the server receives clean JSON. Beacon also adds Content-Type: application/json automatically if you haven’t set one.

Click Format (the wand icon, top-right) to pretty-print the body. If the JSON is invalid, the button shakes and briefly shows Invalid JSON in red.

GraphQL

The GraphQL body is a split view: a Query editor on the left, a Variables (JSON) editor below it, and a Schema explorer on the right.

To explore a schema, click Fetch schema. Beacon runs a standard introspection query against the request’s URL and lists the schema’s types. Expand a type to see its fields; click a field name to insert it at the cursor in the query editor.

GraphQL requests are sent as a single JSON POST with a {query, variables} body and Content-Type: application/json. If the variables editor contains invalid JSON, the send is blocked with an error.

form-data

A key-value editor that builds a multipart/form-data body. Each row has a Type toggle:

Text (the T icon) — a plain text field. Key and value support {{variables}}.
File (the document icon) — a Choose File button opens a native file picker; the chosen filename is shown (or No file chosen).

Files are attached as real multipart parts when the request is sent.

urlencoded

A key-value editor that builds an application/x-www-form-urlencoded body. Beacon adds that Content-Type if you haven’t set one. Keys and values support {{variables}}.

raw

A plain-text Monaco editor. The contents are sent exactly as typed, with whatever Content-Type you set yourself in the Headers tab. Use this for XML, plain text, or any format Beacon doesn’t have a dedicated editor for.

binary

Attaches a single file as the raw request body. Click Choose File (or Change File) to pick a file; a card shows its name and Ready to send, with an × to clear it.

Automatic body-type detection

The first time you open a tab whose body type is none or raw but already has content, Beacon tries to detect the format: it strips comments and attempts to parse the content as JSON. If that succeeds, the type switches to JSON. This runs at most once per tab and never overrides a type you chose yourself.