Zero-mock

RoleFull-stack developer

Year2026

IndexP001

Overview

I built zero-mock as a solo maintainer in a full-stack and tooling role. It is a zero-config developer tool that dynamically generates a persistent REST API from a JSON file while providing a Next.js web dashboard to manage projects. The problem it solves is the overhead frontend developers face when building prototypes: they need a reliable, self-updating local database and a clean visual interface to monitor resources without writing custom mock handlers or manually editing JSON files.

The developer flow is highly streamlined: launch the CLI in watch mode pointing to a JSON file, which automatically spins up the Express server and syncs the data. Developers can interact with endpoints via standard CRUD calls or view their API schema in real-time through the web interface. On-save modifications to the JSON file instantly update the server's endpoints without restart, and writes initiated by API requests are saved atomically to prevent database corruption while preventing infinite watch-reload cycles.

The project is structured as a Turborepo monorepo containing a Next.js frontend app and a standalone TypeScript CLI package. The backend uses Express for route handling, Chokidar for robust file system watching, and Vitest for unit and integration testing. Changes to the repository trigger a GitHub Actions CI workflow that runs typechecks, builds packages, runs coverage reports, and publishes the CLI tool to npm upon merging to the release branch.

One significant challenge was implementing hot-reloading for dynamic JSON schemas. Originally, Express routes were bound statically at startup, meaning adding new collections required a server restart; this was solved by refactoring to a parameter-based routing middleware (/:resource) that queries the database store dynamically on each request. Additionally, file watchers triggered infinite reload loops when the CLI itself wrote data back to disk, which was resolved by implementing an epoch-based lock guard (isSelfWrite) to suppress self-caused filesystem events.

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iCAS-CMU HUB

TypeCompetition

RoleFull-stack developer

Year2025