mint

raises) here: https://hexdocs.pm/req/Req.html#get/2. A common pattern is for the `!` version to call the version that doesn't raise, check the result, and raise on error, which is the case here: https://github.com/wojtekmach/req/blob/9de30de0df481ee557ccc... > and if "body" is JSON, how do you even get the raw body, or can you? You would set `decode: false` when calling `get!/2: https://hexdocs.pm/req/Req.html#new/1. You can also set this as configuration with https://hexdocs.pm/req/Req.html#default_options/1. As a closing note I'll mention that Req is intended to be a very high-level, scripting-friendly requests library, similar to Requests in Python (the author also mentions in the OP that his use case is scripting). If you don't want conveniences like Req provides, you can either turn them off or use something different, like Finch (which Req is based on, https://github.com/sneako/finch). Other than Req and Finch I'm personally only familiar with HTTPoison, which is significantly older than all of the libraries derived from Mint (like Finch and Req, https://github.com/elixir-mint/mint) but is very popular and still works. There are many others though, like Gun and Tesla and such. I just think it's important for folks to know that this level of "magic" is far from the default in Elixir, but it's there if you want it.