Welcome to Mockoon's official CLI, a lightweight and fast NPM package to deploy your mock APIs anywhere. Feed it with a Mockoon's data file, or OpenAPI specification file (JSON or YAML), and you are good to go.
The CLI supports the same features as the main application: templating system, proxy mode, route response rules, etc.
- Installation
- Run a mock API with the CLI
- Compatibility
- Commands
- Use the GitHub Action
- Docker image
- Logs
- Mockoon's documentation
- Sponsors
- Support/feedback
- Contributing
- Roadmap
$ npm install -g @mockoon/cli
Usage:
$ mockoon-cli COMMAND
You will find Mockoon applications changelogs on the official website.
The CLI can import and migrate data from older versions of Mockoon. However, it doesn't alter the file you provide and only migrates a copy. If you created your mock with a more recent version of the application, you need to update your CLI with the following command: npm install -g @mockoon/cli
.
You can run your mock in one single step using the start command and replacing ~/path/to/your-environment-file.json
by the actual location of your Mockoon environment file:
$ mockoon-cli start --data ~/path/to/your-environment-file.json
To locate your environment file from the main application, right-click on a environment and select "Show in folder" in the context menu:
You can also directly load Mockoon's environment file from a URL. To do so, provide the URL as the data
parameter instead of a local path:
$ mockoon-cli start --data https://domain.com/your-environment-file.json
Another option is to directly pass an OpenAPI specification file as the data
parameter. Mockoon supports both JSON and YAML formats in versions 2.0.0 and 3.0.0.
⚠️ There is currently no equivalent between all the OpenAPI specifications and Mockoon's features (more info). If you want to run your Mockoon mock APIs with the CLI with all the features (templating, rules, etc.), you must use Mockoon's data files (see above) directly, or you may lose part of your mock's behavior.
You can provide a path to a local OpenAPI specification file or directly the file's URL:
$ mockoon-cli start --data ~/path/to/your-opeanapi-file.yaml
Or,
$ mockoon-cli start --data https://domain.com/your-opeanapi-file.yaml
Mockoon's CLI has been tested on Node.js versions 18 and 20.
Starts one (or more) mock API from Mockoon's environment file(s) as a foreground process.
The mocks will run by default on the ports and hostnames specified in the files. You can override these values by using the --port
and --hostname
flags.
--data
, --port
and --hostname
flags support multiple entries to run multiple mock APIs at once (see examples below).
💡 To run the CLI as a background process, add an
&
at the end of the command:mockoon-cli start -d ./data-file.json &
.
USAGE
$ mockoon-cli start
OPTIONS
-d, --data [required] Path(s) or URL(s) to your Mockoon file(s)
-p, --port Override environment(s) port(s)
-l, --hostname Override default listening hostname(s)
-c, --faker-locale Faker locale (e.g. 'en', 'en_GB', etc. For supported locales, see below.)
-s, --faker-seed Number for the Faker.js seed (e.g. 1234)
-t, --log-transaction Log the full HTTP transaction (request and response)
-X, --disable-log-to-file Disable logging to file
-e, --disable-routes Disable route(s) by UUID or keyword present in the route's path (do not include a leading slash) or keyword present in a folder name
-r, --repair If the data file seems too old, or an invalid Mockoon file, migrate/repair without prompting
-x, --env-vars-prefix Prefix for environment variables (default: 'MOCKOON_')
--disable-admin-api Disable the admin API, enabled by default (more info: https://mockoon.com/docs/latest/admin-api/overview/)
--disable-tls Disable TLS for all environments. TLS configuration is part of the environment configuration (more info: https://mockoon.com/docs/latest/server-configuration/serving-over-tls/)
--max-transaction-logs Maximum number of transaction logs to keep in memory for retrieval via the admin API (default: 100)
--enable-random-latency Randomize global and responses latencies between 0 and the specified value (default: false)
-h, --help Show CLI help
EXAMPLES
$ mockoon-cli start --data ~/data.json
$ mockoon-cli start --data ~/data1.json ~/data2.json --port 3000 3001 --hostname 127.0.0.1 192.168.1.1
$ mockoon-cli start --data https://file-server/data.json
$ mockoon-cli start --data ~/data.json --log-transaction
$ mockoon-cli start --data ~/data.json --disable-routes route1 route2 folder1
Each running mock API has an admin API enabled by default and available at /mockoon-admin/
. This API allows you to interact with the running mock API, retrieve logs, and more. You can disable the admin API with the --disable-admin-api
flag.
💡 To learn more about the admin API, check the documentation.
- Locale: You can set up Faker.js locale with the
--faker-locale
flag. If not provided, Faker.js will use the default locale:en
. For a list of currently supported locales, you can check the supported locales list in Mockoon's commons library. You can also check Faker.js locales list for more information (⚠️ Some locales may not yet be implemented in Mockoon). - Seed: You can set up Faker.js seed with the
--faker-seed
flag. If not provided, Faker.js will not use a seed. By providing a seed value, you can generate repeatable sequences of fake data. Using seeding will not always generate the same value but rather a predictable sequence.
You can access environment variables in your routes' responses by using the {{getEnvVar 'VARIABLE_NAME'}}
templating helper. By default, only the environment variables prefixed with MOCKOON_
are available, for example, MOCKOON_MY_VARIABLE
.
You can customize the prefix with the --env-vars-prefix
flag. For example, if you set --env-vars-prefix CUSTOM_PREFIX_
, you will be able to access the environment variable CUSTOM_PREFIX_MY_VARIABLE
in your routes' responses. To disable the prefix, set it to an empty string: --env-vars-prefix ''
or --env-vars-prefix=
.
You can disable routes at runtime by providing their UUIDs or a keyword present in the route's path (do not include a leading slash). You can also disable all the routes present in a folder (including subfolders) by adding a keyword present in a folder name.
This is the counterpart of the "Toggle route" feature in the desktop application (right-click on a route -> "Toggle route").
For example, to disable all routes in a folder named folder1
, and all routes having "users" in their paths, you can use --disable-routes folder1 users
.
Generates a Dockerfile used to build a self-contained image of one or more mock API. After building the image, no additional parameters will be needed when running the container.
This command takes similar flags as the start
command.
The --disable-log-to-file
flag will be enabled by default in the resulting Dockerfile.
Please note that this command will copy your Mockoon environments files you provide with the --data
flag and put them side by side with the generated Dockerfile.
For more information on how to build the image: Using the dockerize command
USAGE
$ mockoon-cli dockerize
OPTIONS
-d, --data [required] Path or URL to your Mockoon file
-p, --port [required] Ports to expose in the Docker container. It should match the number of environment data files you provide with the --data flag.
-o, --output [required] Generated Dockerfile path and name (e.g. `./folder/Dockerfile`)
-t, --log-transaction Log the full HTTP transaction (request and response)
-h, --help Show CLI help
EXAMPLES
$ mockoon-cli dockerize --data ~/data.json --output ./Dockerfile
$ mockoon-cli dockerize --data ~/data1.json ~/data2.json --output ./Dockerfile
$ mockoon-cli dockerize --data https://file-server/data.json --output ./Dockerfile
Import a Swagger v2/OpenAPI v3 specification file (YAML or JSON).
The output file will not be prettified by default. You can prettify it using the --prettify
flag described below.
Note: This command is similar to the app's import feature, but it will not import directly to your desktop app. If you need to import and open in your desktop app, use the app's import feature instead.
USAGE
$ mockoon-cli import
OPTIONS
-i, --input [required] Path or URL to your Swagger v2/OpenAPI v3 file
-o, --output [required] Generated Mockoon path and name (e.g. `./environment.json`)
-p, --prettify Prettify output
-h, --help Show CLI help
EXAMPLES
$ mockoon-cli import --input ~/input.json --output ./output.json
$ mockoon-cli import --input ~/input.yaml --output ./output.json
$ mockoon-cli import --input ~/input.json --output ./output.json --prettify
Export a mock API to an OpenAPI v3 specification file (JSON).
The output file will not be prettified by default. You can prettify it using the --prettify
flag described below.
USAGE
$ mockoon-cli export
OPTIONS
-i, --input [required] Path or URL to your Mockoon data file
-o, --output [required] Generated OpenApi v3 path and name (e.g. `./output.json`)
-p, --prettify Prettify output
-h, --help Show CLI help
EXAMPLES
$ mockoon-cli export --input ~/input.json --output ./output.json
$ mockoon-cli export --input ~/input.json --output ./output.json --prettify
Returns information about a command.
USAGE
$ mockoon-cli help [COMMAND]
ARGUMENTS
COMMAND command to show help for
OPTIONS
--all see all commands in CLI
We maintain a GitHub Action that allows you to run your Mockoon CLI in your CI/CD pipelines.
You can find a sample workflow in the GitHub Action's documentation.
Here is an example of a workflow that will run your mock API on every push to the main
branch:
name: Mockoon CLI demo
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
mockoon-cli-demo:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Run Mockoon CLI
uses: mockoon/cli-action@v2
with:
# Mockoon CLI version, default to 'latest'
version: 'latest'
# Mockoon local data file or URL
data-file: './mockoon-data.json'
# port, default to 3000
port: 3000
- name: Make test call
run: curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/endpoint`
💡 If you are building your own actions with the CLI, do not forget to add an
&
at the end of the command to run it in the background and avoid blocking the workflow:mockoon-cli start -d ./data-file.json &
.
A generic Docker image is published on the Docker Hub Mockoon CLI repository. It uses node:18-alpine
and installs the latest version of Mockoon CLI.
All of mockoon-cli start
flags (--port
, etc.) must be provided when running the container.
To load the Mockoon data, you can either mount a local data file and pass mockoon-cli start
flags at the end of the command:
docker run -d --mount type=bind,source=/home/your-data-file.json,target=/data,readonly -p 3000:3000 mockoon/cli:latest --data data --port 3000
Or directly pass a URL to the mockoon-cli start
command, without mounting a local data file:
docker run -d -p 3000:3000 mockoon/cli:latest -d https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mockoon/mock-samples/main/samples/generate-mock-data.json --port 3000
Mockoon CLI's logs will be sent to stdout/stderr (console). File logging is disabled by default in the Docker image.
You can also use docker-compose
with a docker-compose.yml
file:
mock-server:
image: mockoon/cli:latest
command: ["--data", "data", "--port", "3000"]
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD-SHELL", "curl -f http://localhost:3000/your-healthcheck-route || exit 1"]
interval: 30s
timeout: 5s
retries: 2
start_period: 10s
volumes:
- /home/your-data-file.json:/data:readonly
Please note that our Docker image includes an
ENTRYPOINT
that you may override or not. If you don't override it, and use Docker composecommand
, do not includemockoon-cli start
as it is already included in theENTRYPOINT
.
This snippet also provides an optional healthcheck, which means you can block until the server is able to handle responses when bring it up by running docker compose up --detach --wait
.
This example requires a
your-healthcheck-route
route configured to return a 200 status code without latency.
You can use the dockerize
command to generate a new Dockerfile that will allow you to build a self-contained image. Thus, no Mockoon CLI specific parameters will be needed when running the container.
-
Run the
dockerize
command:mockoon-cli dockerize --data ./sample-data.json --port 3000 --output ./tmp/Dockerfile
-
navigate to the
tmp
folder, where the Dockerfile has been generated and the environment file(s) copied:cd tmp
-
Build the image:
docker build -t mockoon-image .
-
Run the container:
docker run -d -p <host_port>:3000 mockoon-image
Logs are located in ~/.mockoon-cli/logs/{mock-name}.log
. This file contains all the log entries (all levels) produced by the running mock server. Most of the errors occurring in Mockoon CLI (or the main application) are not critical and therefore considered as normal output. As an example, if the JSON body from an entering request is erroneous, Mockoon will log a JSON parsing error, but it won't block the normal execution of the application.
As the CLI is running in the foreground, logs are also sent to stdout (console).
When using the --log-transaction
flag, logs will contain the full transaction (request and response) with the same information you can see in the desktop application "Logs" tab.
Example:
{
"app": "mockoon-server",
"level": "info",
"message": "Transaction recorded",
"timestamp": "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ",
"environmentName": "Demo API",
"environmentUUID": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
"requestMethod": "GET",
"requestPath": "/test",
"requestProxied": false,
"responseStatus": 200,
"transaction": {
"proxied": false,
"request": {
"body": "{}",
"headers": [{ "key": "accept", "value": "*/*" }],
"method": "GET",
"params": [],
"query": "",
"queryParams": {},
"route": "/test",
"urlPath": "/test"
},
"response": {
"body": "{}",
"headers": [
{ "key": "content-type", "value": "application/json; charset=utf-8" }
],
"statusCode": 200,
"statusMessage": "OK"
},
"routeResponseUUID": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
"routeUUID": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
}
}
The transaction
model can be found here.
You can disable the logging to the console by redirecting the stdout and stderr outputs:
-
Unix:
mockoon-cli start --data ./data.json > /dev/null 2>&1
or:
mockoon-cli start --data ./data.json &> /dev/null
-
Windows (cmd):
mockoon-cli start --data ./data.json 2> NUL
or:
mockoon-cli start --data ./data.json > NUL 2>&1
-
Windows (PowerShell):
mockoon-cli start --data ./data.json 2> $null
or:
mockoon-cli start --data ./data.json > $null 2>&1
-
Cross platform: use
dev-null-cli
packagemockoon-cli start --data ./data.json | npx dev-null
You can also disable file logging by using th --disable-log-to-file
flag. This is enabled by default in the Docker image.
You will find Mockoon's documentation on the official website.
Mockoon is an open-source project built by volunteer maintainers. If you like our application, please consider sponsoring us and join all the Sponsors and Backers who helped this project over time!
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Upgrade today and take your API development to the next level.
You can discuss all things related to Mockoon's CLI, and ask for help, on the official community. It's also a good place to discuss bugs and feature requests before opening an issue on this repository. For more chat-like discussions, you can also join our Discord server.
If you are interested in contributing to Mockoon, please take a look at the contributing guidelines.
Please also take a look at our Code of Conduct.
If you want to know what will be coming in the next release you can check the global Roadmap.
New releases will be announced on Mockoon's Twitter account @GetMockoon and through the newsletter to which you can subscribe here.