curl remains backbone of URL transfers

curl is not flashy, but it is one of those projects that quietly defines developer infrastructure. Its value is less about novelty than ruthless protocol coverage, stable defaults, and an embedding-friendly library.

• –The protocol surface is still absurdly broad, which keeps curl the default escape hatch for debugging and automation.
• –libcurl matters as much as the CLI because it lets applications reuse the same transport stack instead of reimplementing network code.
• –The project is very alive: 95 releases, 41k+ stars, and an active release pipeline point to durable maintenance rather than legacy neglect.
• –For AI tooling, curl remains a core primitive underneath bootstrap scripts, agent workflows, and API integration tests.