Mocking Overview

RapiDoc can answer API requests from your OpenAPI spec before the backend exists, or without touching real data. There are two mocks, built for different jobs.

	In-browser mock	Mock server
How you turn it on	mock-server="true" on <rapi-doc> or <rapi-doc-mini>	npx rapidoc mock openapi.yaml
Package	rapidoc (included in the bundle)	@rapidoc/cli + @rapidoc/mock (preview)
Runs	Inside the page, by intercepting fetch	As a Node HTTP server (default port 4010)
Who can call it	Code running in the same page: Try, <rapi-flow>, your page’s own scripts	Any client: curl, your frontend, tests, MCP servers
Responses	Spec examples, else generated from the schema	Spec examples, else generated from the schema (seeded)
Choosing a status code	mock-server-status-code, per operation if needed	Prefer: code=… request header
Request validation	No	Yes: a bad request gets 400
Token and scope checks	No	Yes, against your OpenID Connect issuer
Latency simulation	mock-server-delay	No

Pick the in-browser mock for docs and demos: readers can press Try on a published page and get a sensible answer, with nothing to deploy.

Pick the mock server for development and testing: when other programs need to call the API, or when you want requests and tokens checked the way production will check them.