test-proxy-recorder

test-proxy-recorder is a tool designed to record and replay API responses for Playwright test suites. It operates by capturing real API responses during local test runs and saving them to disk. These recorded responses can then be replayed during continuous integration (CI) runs, allowing tests to execute without requiring a live backend or network access. This approach removes the need for hand-written mocks and enables deterministic test results by replaying the exact byte-for-byte responses captured earlier. The tool supports two recording mechanisms to accommodate different request origins. For server-side requests, such as those in Next.js server-side rendering (SSR) or backend-for-frontend architectures, test-proxy-recorder acts as a proxy between the server and the real API, capturing requests and responses. For client-side requests, including browser fetch calls and Chrome extension API traffic, it uses HAR (HTTP Archive) interception within the browser to record network activity. Both mechanisms save the responses to disk, enabling replay in subsequent test runs with the backend turned off. Additional features include support for WebSockets, making it suitable for applications that rely on real-time communication protocols. The tool is implemented in TypeScript and is distributed via npm, indicating its delivery as a command-line interface that integrates with Playwright workflows. It is compatible with Next.js SSR, single-page applications (SPAs), and Chrome extensions. test-proxy-recorder is available under the MIT license and is free to use. Its design is aimed at developers and testers who use Playwright for end-to-end testing and seek to simplify test automation by eliminating the need for maintaining manual mocks and ensuring tests can run reliably in CI environments without backend dependencies.