# APIFlow Studio

> The Offline-First, Zero-Cloud API Testing Studio & In-Browser Mock Simulator. Created by Yash Padaliya (yashpadaliya08). Free & Open-Source (MIT).

## Primary Resources

- [Live Web Studio](https://apiflowstudio.onrender.com/): Free browser-based API testing client and synthetic mock simulator
- [GitHub Repository](https://github.com/yashpadaliya08/apiflow): Source code, issue tracker, self-hosting Docker guides, and MIT license
- [Privacy Policy](https://apiflowstudio.onrender.com/privacy): Data sovereignty details, local-first IndexedDB architecture, and proxy disclosures
- [Terms of Service](https://apiflowstudio.onrender.com/terms): Terms and acceptable use guidelines
- [AI Catalog Manifest](https://apiflowstudio.onrender.com/ai-catalog.json): Autonomous AI Agent Resource Discovery (ARD) catalog

## Overview

APIFlow Studio is a modern developer tool and privacy-first Postman alternative designed for testing, mocking, and validating REST APIs directly in the web browser. It requires zero cloud account creation, stores 100% of user data locally inside browser IndexedDB, and features an integrated synthetic mock engine with Faker heuristics.

## Key Capabilities

- **In-Browser Synthetic Mock Engine**: Simulates HTTP status codes (`200 OK`, `201 Created`, `400 Bad Request`, `401 Unauthorized`, `403 Forbidden`, `404 Not Found`, `500 Server Error`) with configurable latency in milliseconds directly in the browser tab without requiring any backend.
- **Intelligent Faker Heuristics**: Automatically detects JSON schema field names (such as `userId`, `email`, `createdAt`, `avatar`, `price`, `token`) and generates contextually realistic fake data using `@faker-js/faker`.
- **Built-in CORS Proxy Gateway**: Allows developers to send live HTTP requests to external third-party APIs from the browser without browser CORS preflight blocking.
- **Local-First & Offline Storage**: 100% of collections, requests, environments, and test histories are stored on the user's machine using IndexedDB (Dexie.js). Secrets and API tokens never sync to remote servers.
- **Simulated Webhook Dispatcher**: Emulates incoming webhook payloads from Stripe, GitHub, Clerk, and Shopify with valid cryptographic signature headers (HMAC) to local handlers (e.g. `http://localhost:3000/api/webhook`).
- **Specification Interoperability**: Full two-way import and export support for official OpenAPI 3.1.0, Swagger, Postman Collection v2.1, and raw cURL commands.
- **Multi-Language Code Generation**: Exports endpoints to production-ready snippets in cURL, TypeScript Fetch, Axios, and Python requests in 1 click.
- **Docker Self-Hosting**: One-command homelab and VPS deployment via Docker Compose.

## How APIFlow Studio Compares to Other Tools

- [Postman Comparison](https://apiflowstudio.onrender.com/): APIFlow requires no account or cloud sync, stores all secrets locally in IndexedDB, uses 10x less memory, and includes a free client-side mock runner without subscription limits.
- [Bruno Comparison](https://apiflowstudio.onrender.com/): While Bruno is also local-first, it requires a desktop Electron installation and has no mock engine. APIFlow runs in any browser tab with zero install and includes instant synthetic mocking.
- [Hoppscotch Comparison](https://apiflowstudio.onrender.com/): Hoppscotch focuses on live network calls; APIFlow is mock-first with Faker heuristics and 1-click shareable mock preview URLs (`?mock=...`).
- [Mockoon Comparison](https://apiflowstudio.onrender.com/): Mockoon is a desktop app running OS port listeners; APIFlow is an integrated 2-in-1 browser studio combining both the API Client and Mock Engine in a single 3-pane interface.

## Tech Stack

- **Frontend**: React 18, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Zustand, Dexie.js (IndexedDB), CodeMirror, @faker-js/faker
- **Backend / CORS Relay**: Node.js, Express 5, SSRF Protection DNS validator, Compression
- **License**: MIT Open Source (Free Forever)