zero-mock

zero-mock is a zero-config Node.js CLI that turns any JSON file into a persistent, production-grade REST API in seconds. It includes an interactive setup wizard, a high-contrast brutalist UI, and smart schema inference with automatic validation.

Built for frontend developers and architects who need a realistic, stable backend for prototypes, demos, and integration tests without the overhead of database orchestration.

Key Features

• Zero-config — your JSON file is your database and API definition.
• Interactive wizard — run zero-mock to start the setup guide.
• Smart validation — automatically infers Zod schemas from your data to validate POST, PUT, and PATCH requests.
• Atomic and secure — cross-platform atomic writes (Windows-safe) with file-locking to prevent data corruption.
• Advanced REST — supports filtering (_gte, _lte, _like), sorting (_sort, _order), and pagination (_page, _limit).
• Realistic simulation — simulate network latency and configure custom CORS origins/methods.
• Watch mode — hot-reloads data from disk on manual file changes without a server restart.
• Session memory — remembers your last used configuration for a faster workflow.

Installation

Global

npm install -g @xirconsss/zero-mock

Run the CLI as zero-mock.

One-off with npx

npx @xirconsss/zero-mock

Usage

1. Interactive mode (recommended)

Run the command without arguments to launch the setup wizard:

zero-mock

2. Manual CLI

Pass flags to skip the wizard:

zero-mock -f ./data.json -p 8080 -w -d 200

| Flag | Description | | ---- | ----------- | | -f, --file | Path to the source JSON file. | | -p, --port | HTTP port (default 3000, must be 1024–65535). | | -d, --delay | Delay every request by X milliseconds (default 0). | | -w, --watch | Enable hot-reloading on manual file changes. | | --cors-origin | Comma-separated allowed origins (default *). | | --reset | Clear saved wizard configuration and exit. |

Auto-generated API

The tool generates full CRUD endpoints for every top-level key in your JSON (e.g., users, posts).

| Method | Path | Description | | ------ | ---- | ----------- | | GET | /{resource} | List items (supports filtering, sorting, paging). | | POST | /{resource} | Create item (auto-id + schema validation). | | GET | /{resource}/{id} | Return a single item by id. | | PUT | /{resource}/{id} | Replace item (schema validation). | | PATCH | /{resource}/{id} | Partial update (schema validation). | | DELETE | /{resource}/{id} | Remove item. |

Advanced List Features

Filtering

• GET /posts?category=tech — exact match
• GET /posts?views_gte=100 — greater than or equal
• GET /posts?title_like=hello — case-insensitive search

Sorting

• GET /posts?_sort=createdAt&_order=desc

Pagination

• GET /posts?_page=1&_limit=10
• Returns an X-Total-Count header and a wrapped { data, pagination } object.

JSON Structure

The root must be an object, and every resource must be an array.

{
  "users": [
    { "id": 1, "name": "Alice", "role": "admin" },
    { "id": 2, "name": "Bob" }
  ]
}

Note: zero-mock automatically infers that role is an optional string based on the items above.

Development

1. Clone the repo.
2. npm install
3. npm run dev (runs with ts-node)
4. npm run build (compiles to dist/)

Publishing (Maintainers)

This project uses semantic-release for fully automated versioning and npm publishing.

1. Ensure your commits follow the Conventional Commits format (e.g., feat:, fix:, chore:).
2. Push or open a PR against the main branch.
3. GitHub Actions handles testing, version bumping, changelog generation, and publishing to npm.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Links

• Repository: github.com/xircons/zero-mock
• Issues: github.com/xircons/zero-mock/issues