0.1.0 • Published 5h agoCLI

fake-api-cli

Licence

MIT

Version

0.1.0

Deps

Size

75 kB

Vulns

Weekly

Summary Dependency Versions

fake-api-cli

Generate realistic fake REST APIs in seconds.

A lightweight, configurable REST API generator powered by Faker. Build mock APIs for frontend development, testing, prototyping, demos, and hackathons without writing a backend.

npm

Features

Generate complete REST APIs in seconds
Zero database setup
Built-in generators for common resources
Custom schema-based resource generation
Resource references (@users.id)
Nested objects
Arrays
Automatic JSON persistence
Filtering
Pagination
Sorting
Search
Field selection
Full CRUD support
Simple CLI
Swagger UI
Written entirely in TypeScript

Why fake-api?

Frontend developers often need an API before the backend is ready.

Instead of manually creating JSON files or spinning up a database, fake-api generates a realistic REST API with configurable resources, relationships, and fake data.

Perfect for:

Frontend development
UI prototyping
Hackathons
Portfolio projects
Testing REST clients
Learning API integration

Installation

Install globally

npm install -g fake-api-cli

Or use directly with NPX

npx fake-api-cli start

Quick Start

Create a configuration file.

export default {
  port: 3000,

  persistence: true,

  database: "./fake-api-db.json",

  resources: {
    users: {
      count: 100,
      schema: {
        name: "person.fullName",
        email: "internet.email",
        city: "location.city",
      },
    },
  },
};

Start the server.

fake-api start

Output

✔ Fake API Server Started

URL:
http://localhost:3000

Resources:
• /users

Swagger:
/docs

Now open

http://localhost:3000/users

You'll instantly have a fully working REST API.

Example Response

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "John Doe",
    "email": "john@example.com",
    "city": "London"
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Alice Smith",
    "email": "alice@example.com",
    "city": "Paris"
  }
]

Supported HTTP Methods

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	`/users`	Get all records
GET	`/users/:id`	Get a single record
POST	`/users`	Create a record
PUT	`/users/:id`	Replace a record
PATCH	`/users/:id`	Update part of a record
DELETE	`/users/:id`	Delete a record

Built-in Resources

Out of the box, fake-api includes generators for:

Users
Products
Posts

Example

resources: {
  users: {
    count: 100,
  },

  products: {
    count: 50,
  },

  posts: {
    count: 25,
  },
}

Need something else?

Just define a schema and fake-api generates it automatically.

Custom Schema Generation

Create completely custom resources without writing generators.

resources: {
  books: {
    count: 5,

    schema: {
      title: "book.title",
      author: "person.fullName",
      pages: "number.int(100,500)",
    },
  },
}

Output

{
  "id": 1,
  "title": "The Hobbit",
  "author": "Jane Doe",
  "pages": 341
}

Nested Objects

schema: {
  name: "person.fullName",

  address: {
    city: "location.city",
    country: "location.country",
  },
}

Result

{
  "name": "John",

  "address": {
    "city": "London",
    "country": "United Kingdom"
  }
}

Arrays

skills: [
  "helpers.arrayElement(React,Node,Go)",
  "helpers.arrayElement(TypeScript,Rust,Python)"
]

Produces

{
  "skills": [
    "React",
    "TypeScript"
  ]
}

Resource References

Resources can reference records from other resources using the @resource.field syntax.

Example

resources: {
  users: {
    count: 100,
    schema: {
      name: "person.fullName",
    },
  },

  posts: {
    count: 200,
    schema: {
      title: "lorem.sentence",
      userId: "@users.id",
    },
  },
}

Generated output

{
  "id": 1,
  "title": "My First Post",
  "userId": 42
}

References are randomly selected from existing records.

They can also be used inside arrays.

friends: [
  "@users.id",
  "@users.id"
]

Result

{
  "friends": [14, 87]
}

Query Parameters

Every generated resource automatically supports powerful query operations.

Pagination

GET /users?page=1&limit=10

Sorting

Ascending

GET /users?sort=name

Descending

GET /users?sort=-name

Multiple fields

GET /users?sort=city,-name

Filtering

Equality

GET /users?city=London

Not equal

GET /users?city_ne=London

Greater than

GET /products?price_gt=100

Greater than or equal

GET /products?price_gte=100

Less than

GET /products?price_lt=500

Less than or equal

GET /products?price_lte=500

IN operator

GET /users?role_in=Admin,Manager

Search

Search across supported fields.

GET /users?search=john

Field Selection

Return only selected fields.

GET /users?fields=id,name,email

Response

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "John Doe",
    "email": "john@example.com"
  }
]

Persistence

When persistence is enabled, all changes are automatically written to a JSON database.

export default {
  persistence: true,

  database: "./fake-api-db.json",
}

Supported operations:

POST
PUT
PATCH
DELETE

Changes are immediately persisted to disk.

Swagger UI

Every server exposes interactive API documentation.

http://localhost:3000/docs

Swagger allows you to:

Explore endpoints
Execute requests
View responses
Test CRUD operations

No additional configuration required.

CLI

Start the server

fake-api start

Using NPX

npx fake-api-cli start

Development

npm run dev -- start

Build

npm run build

Configuration

A typical configuration file looks like this.

export default {
  port: 3000,

  delay: 0,

  persistence: true,

  database: "./fake-api-db.json",

  auth: false,

  resources: {
    users: {
      count: 100,

      schema: {
        name: "person.fullName",
        email: "internet.email",
        city: "location.city",
      },
    },
  },
}

Project Structure

fake-api/

├── src/
│   ├── cli/
│   ├── config/
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── database/
│   ├── generators/
│   ├── query/
│   ├── routes/
│   ├── server/
│   ├── services/
│   ├── types/
│   └── utils/
│
├── dist/
├── package.json
└── README.md