HTTP Playground Server

A lightweight HTTP playground server for instantly simulating requests and responses—no complex pre-configuration needed. Ideal for front-end, QA, or integration testing workflows.

Built with Node.js and Express.

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📚 API Reference

Method	Path	Description
ALL	/base64/encode	Encodes a string value to Base64 format.
ALL	/base64/decode	Decodes a Base64 string to its original format.
ALL	/basic-auth	Tests HTTP Basic Authentication by comparing credentials from Authorization header against query parameters.
ALL	/error/timeout	Simulates a timeout by never sending a response.
ALL	/error/network	Simulates a network error by closing the connection.
ALL	/error/malformed-json	Returns malformed JSON response.
ALL	/error/error	Throws an unhandled exception to trigger Express error handler.
ALL	/mirror	Returns the request body as a response.
ALL	/redirect	Returns a redirect response based on the status and url of the query parameters.
ALL	/request	Return a structured JSON dump of the incoming request.
ALL	/shutdown	Triggers a shutdown of the server. Requires ENABLE_SHUTDOWN=true.
ALL	/status/{status}	Respond with a given HTTP status code (must be between 200 and 599).
ALL	/uuid	Generate and return a random UUID (version 4).

Query Parameters

Name	Type	Default	Description
delay	Number	0	Delays the response by the specified value in milliseconds.
status	Number	—	HTTP status code for /redirect or /status/{status}.
url	String	—	Target URL for /redirect.
user	String	—	Expected username for /basic-auth (required).
password	String	—	Expected password for /basic-auth (required).

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⚙️ Environment Variables

Name	Required	Default	Description	Notes
NODE_ENV	No	development	Sets the environment mode. (development, production, test)
LOG_LEVEL	No	info	Sets the logging level. (debug, info, warn, error)
PORT	No	8000	Port number for this application.
KEEP_ALIVE_TIMEOUT	No	5000	HTTP keep-alive timeout in milliseconds.
HEADERS_TIMEOUT	No	10000	HTTP headers timeout in milliseconds.	Must be > KEEP_ALIVE_TIMEOUT
REQUEST_TIMEOUT	No	30000	Request timeout in milliseconds.	Must be > HEADERS_TIMEOUT
ENABLE_SHUTDOWN	No	false	Enables the /shutdown endpoint.
MAX_DELAY	No	10000	Maximum delay allowed for the delay query parameter in milliseconds.
ORIGIN	No	*	The value of the Access-Control-Allow-Origin response header.

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🚀 Build and Run the Application

Using Docker

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ryo8000/http-playground-server.git
   cd http-playground-server

2. Build and run the application in a Docker container:

   docker build -t http-playground-server .
   docker run -p 8000:8000 http-playground-server

Using Yarn

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ryo8000/http-playground-server.git
   cd http-playground-server

2. Install dependencies using Yarn:

   yarn install

3. Build the application:

   yarn build

4. Run the application:

   node dist/server.js

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🧑‍💻 Development

For developer-specific instructions, including details on testing and project structure, see the Development Guide.

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📜 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.