Getting Started

Get up and running with pbar.io in less than a minute. No account required.

Quick Start

1. Create a Progress Bar

Create your first progress bar with a simple API call:

curl -X POST https://pbar.io/api/bars \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "My First Progress Bar", "total": 100}'

Response includes your unique slug and URLs to view/update the progress bar.

2. Update Progress

Update your progress bar by incrementing or setting the current value:

# Increment by 10
curl -X PATCH https://pbar.io/api/bars/YOUR_SLUG \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"increment": 10}'

# Or set to specific value
curl -X PATCH https://pbar.io/api/bars/YOUR_SLUG \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"current": 50}'

3. View Progress

View your progress bar in multiple ways:

🌐 Web Browser

https://pbar.io/YOUR_SLUG

💻 Terminal (with colors)

curl https://pbar.io/api/bars/YOUR_SLUG

📊 JSON API

curl -H "Accept: application/json" https://pbar.io/api/bars/YOUR_SLUG

Language-Specific Installation

Python

Install the Python package and use it as a drop-in replacement for tqdm:

pip install pbar-io

# Use it in your code
from pbar_io import tqdm

for item in tqdm(range(100), desc="Processing"):
    # Your code here
    process(item)

JavaScript/Node.js

Use the REST API directly with fetch or your preferred HTTP client:

// Create a progress bar
const response = await fetch('https://pbar.io/api/bars', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    title: 'Processing files',
    total: files.length
  })
})
const { slug } = await response.json()

// Update progress in your loop
for (const file of files) {
  await processFile(file)
  
  // Increment the progress bar
  await fetch(`https://pbar.io/api/bars/${slug}`, {
    method: 'PATCH',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    body: JSON.stringify({ increment: 1 })
  })
}

Shell Scripts

Use pbar.io directly in your shell scripts:

#!/bin/bash

# Create progress bar and extract slug
RESPONSE=$(curl -s -X POST https://pbar.io/api/bars \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Backup Progress", "total": 100}')
  
SLUG=$(echo $RESPONSE | jq -r .slug)
echo "Track progress at: https://pbar.io/$SLUG"

# Update progress in your loop
for i in {1..10}; do
  # Do some work
  sleep 1
  
  # Update progress
  curl -s -X PATCH https://pbar.io/api/bars/$SLUG \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"increment": 10}' > /dev/null
done

Key Features

🚀 No Authentication Required

Start using pbar.io immediately without signing up. Free tier bars expire after 30 days.

🔄 Real-time Updates

Progress updates appear instantly in all connected browsers and terminals via WebSockets.

🎨 Beautiful Rendering

Automatic format detection serves beautiful progress bars in browsers, terminals, and APIs.

📊 Hierarchical Progress

Create parent-child relationships between progress bars for complex multi-step processes.

Next Steps

API Reference →

Complete API documentation with all endpoints and parameters.

Examples →

Real-world examples and use cases for different scenarios.

Core Concepts →

Understand hierarchical bars, expiration, and more.