April 1, 2026
Hack the snacks!
Show HN: CLI to order groceries via reverse-engineered REWE API (Haskell)
Hacker-made REWE grocery tool drops; crowd jokes “The Net” and asks: Why Haskell
TLDR: A developer released “korb,” a command-line tool that orders REWE grocery pickups via a reverse‑engineered app interface. Commenters are delighted and amused—cracking 90s movie jokes, debating the bold Haskell choice, and asking if it could work for Austria’s Billa—showing real appetite for DIY grocery tech.
A lone coder just dropped “korb,” a command-line tool that lets you order REWE groceries for pickup using a reverse‑engineered version of the REWE app’s secret pipes. Translation: you can type your shopping list into a terminal and have apples waiting at the store. It’s written in Haskell, runs on macOS for now, logs you in via a browser, and even stores your login safely in Apple’s Keychain. The catch? You’ll need special app certificates—think security badges—from the REWE app to make it work. Repo’s here: github.com/yannick-cw/korb.
The crowd reaction? A mix of heart-eyes and raised eyebrows. The biggest chatter is about the Haskell choice: one commenter grinned “interesting choice,” while another cheered that it’s “really cool” to see Haskell still alive and kicking, even asking if the creator rolled their own OAuth2 (the standard login dance) and how it stacks up against shinier modern languages. Meanwhile, the comment of the day crowned it with pure 90s energy: “this feels like Sandra Bullock ordering pizza in ‘The Net’.”
There’s practical curiosity, too: could this work for Austria’s Billa, REWE’s sibling chain? People want cross-border groceries on tap. And the README’s “use Chrome, not Firefox” note drew a collective, playful sigh—browser loyalties die hard. Love it or side-eye it, korb taps that DIY hacker spirit: from code to carrots, with a wink to retro cyber-thrills and a very real bag of groceries at pickup.
Key Points
- •“korb” is a Haskell CLI that automates creating baskets and placing REWE pickup orders via reverse-engineered REWE mobile APIs.
- •It offers a macOS (Apple Silicon) binary and can be built from source with GHC 9.12+, Cabal, and REWE mTLS client certificates.
- •Authentication uses a PKCE browser flow (Chrome required) with tokens stored in macOS Keychain; all output is JSON.
- •Users can set a pickup store, search and filter products, manage favorites, add to basket, view timeslots, create checkout, order for pickup with in-market payment, and cancel orders.
- •Reverse-engineered OpenAPI specs for REWE Product & Checkout and Account/Keycloak APIs are provided; the project is unofficial and may break as APIs change.