nestjs-dev-docs

Self-documenting API with an interactive testing UI for NestJS. Automatically scans your controllers and exposes documentation at a configurable path, with a built-in request tester (Postman-like).

Installation

npm install nestjs-dev-docs
# or
yarn add nestjs-dev-docs

Peer dependencies (required in your app): @nestjs/common, @nestjs/core, reflect-metadata.

Optional: class-validator + class-validator-jsonschema for richer DTO schema extraction.

Usage

Import and register the module in your app (e.g. AppModule):

import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { DevDocsModule } from 'nestjs-dev-docs';

@Module({
  imports: [
    DevDocsModule.register({
      path: '/api/docs',
    }),
  ],
})
export class AppModule {}

Then open http://localhost:3000/api/docs (or your app URL + path) to view the documentation and test endpoints.

Configuration options

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |-------------------|---------|---------|--------------------------------------------------| | path | string | required | Base path for the docs UI and API (e.g. /api/docs) | | title | string | 'API' | Title used in the UI and OpenAPI export | | baseUrl | string | from request | Base URL for the request proxy (e.g. http://localhost:3000) | | darkModeDefault | boolean | - | Reserved for future UI default theme |

Documenting endpoints

Use the @Doc() decorator to add a summary and description:

import { Doc } from 'nestjs-dev-docs';

@Controller('users')
export class UsersController {
  @Doc({ summary: 'Create User', description: 'Creates a new user in the system' })
  @Post()
  create(@Body() dto: CreateUserDto) {
    return this.usersService.create(dto);
  }
}

Features

• Automatic controller scanning – Discovers all controllers and routes (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) and parameters (@Body, @Query, @Param, @Headers).
• Interactive request tester – Send requests from the UI with body, query, headers, and path params; view status, time, and response body.
• Auth testing – Bearer token and API key inputs; values are sent with proxied requests.
• DTO schema – Infers request body and query shape from classes (reflection and optional class-validator-jsonschema).
• Export OpenAPI – Download OpenAPI 3.0 JSON from the UI.
• Copy cURL – Copy the last request as a cURL command.
• Request history – Last requests stored in the browser (localStorage).
• Dark / light mode – Toggle with persistence.

API (served under your path)

• GET / – Documentation UI (HTML).
• GET /spec – JSON list of controllers and endpoints.
• POST /request – Proxy for the request tester (body: path, method, body, query, headers, pathParams).
• GET /openapi.json – OpenAPI 3.0 JSON.

License

MIT