cUrlit - turning complexity into simplicity

• curlit is an Express middleware that logs a multi‑line cURL command representing the incoming request and its response.

Imagine this, story time:

After months of hard work, you've built a robust API server that your customers are now using daily. One day, you realize that you need to create a Postman collection for your API—something that used to take hours of manual effort.

Now, instead of diving back into the tedious task of documenting every endpoint, you integrate the curlit middleware into your server's entry point.

Suddenly, each time a request is processed, curlit generates a ready-to-use cURL command. With a quick copy and paste, you start building your Postman collection effortlessly. What once seemed like a stressful, time-consuming chore is now a streamlined process, giving you more time to focus on enhancing your application rather than documenting it.

This is the magic of curlit—turning complexity into simplicity, one cURL command at a time.

Use cases:

• This can be useful for debugging, testing, or reproducing API calls easily.
• You can copy the curl, and run it.
• Or paste into postman to build a postman collection.

Installation

npm install curlit

Usage

const express = require('express'); // or import express from 'express'
const curlit = require('curlit'); // or import curlit from 'curlit'

const app = express();

// Use JSON parsing middleware if needed
app.use(express.json());

// Use curlit middleware to log cURL commands
app.use(curlit);

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello, world!');
});

const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server running on port ${port}`);
});

How the log looks like

Request example

• Here is an example of a GET request that has been intercepted/middlewared and logged out:

  curl --location 'http://localhost:9000/api/transactions?page=1&pageSize=10' \
  --header 'accept: application/json' \
  --header 'content-type: application/json' \
  --header 'authorization: Bearer eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJPbmxpbmUgSldUIEJ1aWxkZXIiLCJpYXQiOjE3NDAyNTY4ODYsImV4cCI6MTc3MTc5Mjg4NiwiYXVkIjoid3d3LmV4YW1wbGUuY29tIiwic3ViIjoianJvY2tldEBleGFtcGxlLmNvbSIsIkdpdmVuTmFtZSI6IkpvaG5ueSIsIlN1cm5hbWUiOiJSb2NrZXQiLCJFbWFpbCI6Impyb2NrZXRAZXhhbXBsZS5jb20iLCJSb2xlIjpbIk1hbmFnZXIiLCJQcm9qZWN0IEFkbWluaXN0cmF0b3IiXX0.TcvmooXDwMgTo2vtPWkFbhp-eOywKpfCUl7kQvMU81g' \
  --header 'x-client-id: com.example.app' \
  --header 'host: localhost:9000' \
  --header 'accept-encoding: gzip, deflate, br' \
  --header 'connection: keep-alive'

Response example:

• Here is an example of a response that has been intercepted/middlewared and logged out:

  
  {
      "success": true,
      "records": [
          {
              "id": 123456789,
              "status": "Completed",
              "reference": "INV-98765",
              "amount": 100.5,
              "currency": "USD",
              "channel": "Credit Card",
              "paidAt": "2024-02-20T15:30:00Z",
              "customerId": "67b49ecb34975e212b9afbc0",
              "yearMonth": 202402
          },
          {
              "id": 123456790,
              "status": "Pending",
              "reference": "INV-98766",
              "amount": 50,
              "currency": "USD",
              "channel": "Mpesa",
              "paidAt": "2024-02-21T10:00:00Z",
              "customerId": "67b49ecb34975e212b9afbc0",
              "yearMonth": 202402
          }
      ],
      "total": 150.5,
      "page": 1,
      "pageSize": 2,
      "remaining": 5
  }
  

How It Works

• Request Interception: The middleware captures the incoming request.
• Building the cURL Command: It constructs a cURL command that includes the HTTP method, headers, data (for non-GET requests), and full URL.
• Logging: The constructed command and response body are logged to the console.
• Continuation: The original res.send is then called to complete the response.

License

• MIT

Help information

• If you have any questions, ask via the GitHub Discussion forums
• If you have any suggestions or feedback, please open an issue or create a pull request.

Notes:

• This package is in active development.
• This means new features are added regularly.
• Incase your favorite feature is missing, you can always bump a version backwards or create a pull request which will be reviewed and merged into the next release.
• Thanks for your contribution.
• Happy coding!

Reach out:

• Follow me on Twitter: @daggieblanqx
• I am also on LinkedIn, where you can tag me to the awesome projects you've built using this package: @daggieblanqx
• Blog posts: Logrocket/@Daggieblanqx