Better AI Assistance for Bruno API Collections

Many users migrate to Bruno from other tools like Postman due to it's filesystem-based approach. This allows for native Git versioning of API collections, and also an IDE-native approach for interacting with collections. 

However, AI coding assistants like Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and ChatGPT don't understand Bruno's format out of the box. When you ask them to create API requests, they may suggest different syntaxes or not follow the collection/request schema perfectly. 

We built a collection of prompt files that teach AI assistants about Bruno. After setup, your AI assistant will suggest proper .bru syntax, environment variables, and testing patterns.

You can find a public GitHub repo with these prompts and full instructions here: https://github.com/bruno-collections/ai-assistant-prompts

The Problem: AI Doesn’t Speak Bruno

Bruno uses a specific format and syntax for API collections. Without context, AI assistants make unhelpful suggestions:

What you want:

meta {
  name: Get User
  type: http
}

get {
  url: /users/
  auth: bearer
}

auth:bearer {
  token: 
}

What AI suggests without context:

{
  "name": "Get User",
  "method": "GET",
  "url": "https://api.example.com/users/123"
}

The Solution: Teach AI How Bruno Works

The prompt files contain Bruno-specific context that AI assistants read automatically. They learn about:

• Bruno's .bru file syntax and structure
• Environment variable patterns with
• Authentication blocks like auth:bearer
• Pre-request and post-response scripting
• Test assertions using Chai.js
• Bruno's offline-first, Git-collaborative philosophy

Supported AI Assistants

Setup

Option 1: One-Command Install (Recommended)

cd your-bruno-project
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bruno-collections/bruno-ai-assistant-prompts/main/install.sh | bash

Note: Restart your editor after installation.

Option 2: Manual Install

Download the appropriate prompt file for your AI assistant:

• Cursor: Copy .cursorrules to your project root
• GitHub Copilot: Add copilot-instructions.md to .github/ folder
• VS Code Extensions: Add ai-instructions.md to .vscode/ folder
• General AI (ChatGPT, Claude): Copy and paste the context file

Advanced Team Setup

Git Submodule

Useful if you want centralized updates, explicit prompt versioning, or cleaner monorepo workflows.

git submodule add https://github.com/bruno-collections/bruno-ai-assistant-prompts.git .bruno-ai
ln -s .bruno-ai/prompts/cursor/.cursorrules .cursorrules

Results: What AI Can Do After Setup

After setup, AI assistants understand Bruno patterns:

Creating requests:

You: "Create a POST request for user registration"

AI: 
meta {
  name: User Registration
  type: http
}

post {
  url: /auth/register
  body: json
}

body:json {
  {
    "email": "",
    "password": ""
  }
}

tests {
  test("Registration successful", function() {
    expect(res.status).to.equal(201);
  });
}

Environment setup:

You: "Create a development environment"

AI:
vars {
  baseUrl: https://api.dev.example.com
  apiVersion: v1
}

vars:secret [
  apiToken,
  clientSecret
]

Installation Options

All assistants:

./install.sh --all

Specific assistant:

./install.sh --cursor
./install.sh --copilot
./install.sh --vscode

Windows:

.\install.ps1 -All

Team Usage

Commit the prompt files to your repository so the entire team gets consistent AI assistance:

git add .cursorrules .github/copilot-instructions.md
git commit -m "Add AI assistant prompts for Bruno"

What's Included

• Prompt files for major AI assistants
• Complete example Bruno collections (REST, GraphQL, microservices)
• Installation scripts for Unix and Windows
• Documentation for each AI assistant

Repository

The prompt files and installation scripts are available at: https://github.com/bruno-collections/ai-assistant-prompts

The repository includes examples, documentation, and automated setup for all major AI coding assistants.