📄 Docify

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Turn any Express API into live documentation in 2 lines.

No Swagger. No schemas. No setup.
Just run your API → docs generate themselves.

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⚡ Quick Start

npm install docify

const express = require('express');
const docify = require('@alikhan-devs/docify');

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

// One line — that's it!
app.use(docify());

// Your existing routes work as before
app.get('/api/users', (req, res) => { /* ... */ });
app.post('/api/users', (req, res) => { /* ... */ });

app.listen(3000);
// Visit http://localhost:3000/docs to see your auto-generated API docs!

🎯 How It Works

1. You install Docify and add it as Express middleware
2. You develop normally — no annotations, no schemas, no changes to your code
3. Docify observes every API request and response flowing through your app
4. Documentation is generated automatically and served at /docs
5. Live updates — as you make more API calls, docs update in real-time via SSE

📋 Configuration

app.use(docify({
  docsPath: '/docs',          // URL path for documentation UI (default: '/docs')
  sanitize: true,             // Mask sensitive fields like passwords/tokens (default: true)
  enabled: true,              // Master switch (default: true)
  maxExamples: 5,             // Max request/response examples per endpoint (default: 5)
  sensitiveFields: [],        // Additional field names to redact (default: [])
  ignorePaths: ['/health'],   // Paths to exclude from capture (default: [])
  captureHeaders: false,      // Whether to capture req/res headers (default: false)
  persist: true,              // Keep captured docs after server restarts (default: true)
  storagePath: '.docify/docify.json', // Optional custom persistence file
}));

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
DOCIFY_ENABLED=false	Disable Docify entirely (useful for production)
DOCIFY_DEBUG=true	Enable internal debug logging

🏗️ Architecture

Express Request → Capture Middleware → Sanitizer → Route Registry → Doc Generator → UI

Module	Responsibility
Capture Middleware	Intercepts res.write/res.end to capture response bodies non-destructively
Route Registry	In-memory store that groups API calls by normalized routes, detects parameterized paths
Sanitizer	Deep-scans objects and masks sensitive fields (password, token, secret, etc.)
Doc Generator	Transforms registry data into structured, sorted, grouped JSON
UI Server	Serves a self-contained HTML documentation page with SSE live updates

Persistent Docs, Cleanup, and Try It

Docify now stores captured documentation in .docify/docify.json by default, so restarting your backend does not wipe the generated docs. Set persist: false if you only want in-memory docs during tests or short-lived sessions.

If a wrong request is captured, such as GET /users when the endpoint should be POST /users, open the endpoint in the UI and use the delete button to remove only that captured route.

Each endpoint page also includes a try panel. You can edit the method, path, query string, and JSON body, then run the request against the live backend and see the real response immediately.

Parameterized Route Detection

Docify automatically detects dynamic URL segments:

• /users/123 → /users/:id
• /users/550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 → /users/:id
• /users/507f1f77bcf86cd799439011 → /users/:id

🔒 Security

• Sensitive fields are masked by default — passwords, tokens, API keys, secrets are replaced with [REDACTED]
• No external network calls — all data stays in-process memory
• Response body size limit — bodies >1MB are truncated
• Self-exclusion — Docify's own routes are never captured
• Production disable — set DOCIFY_ENABLED=false in production

Default Redacted Fields

password, token, access_token, refresh_token, api_key, secret, authorization, cookie, session, credit_card, card_number, cvv, ssn, private_key, x-api-key

📡 API Endpoints

When Docify is mounted, these routes are available:

Route	Description
GET /docs	Documentation UI
GET /docs/api.json	Raw JSON API catalog (SDK-friendly)
GET /docs/stream	Server-Sent Events stream for live updates
DELETE /docs/api.json	Clear all captured data
DELETE /docs/endpoint	Delete one captured endpoint by method and path
POST /docs/try	Run an endpoint against the live backend from the docs UI

🧪 Running the Example

cd example
npm install
npm start

Then make some API calls:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/users
curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/users -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name":"Alice","email":"alice@test.com"}'
curl http://localhost:3000/api/products?category=electronics
curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/auth/login -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"email":"alice@example.com","password":"secret"}'

Visit http://localhost:3000/docs to see the auto-generated documentation!

📄 License

MIT