pretenderjs/pretender

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

1262 stars · 155 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

Pretender is a browser-only mock server library that intercepts XMLHttpRequest and Fetch requests and routes them to handlers defined with an express/sinatra-style DSL. It is commonly used in frontend testing to simulate backend APIs without a real server.

Use cases

• mock api responses in browser tests
• intercept fetch and xmlhttprequest requests
• stub backend endpoints for frontend development
• test ajax calls without a real server
• define fake rest routes with an express-style dsl

When to choose

• you need to mock XHR or Fetch in browser-based tests like Ember or QUnit suites
• you want a lightweight, express-style routing DSL for fake endpoints
• you're developing a frontend against an unfinished backend API

When to avoid

• you need to mock requests in Node.js or server-side code (Pretender is browser-only)
• you need full HTTP server simulation with networking, TLS, or websockets
• your project uses modern alternatives like MSW and wants active maintenance

Facets

library · maturity maintenance

mocking http-client routing testing testing web-development frontend developer-tools browser mock-server xhr fetch request-interception express-style-dsl frontend-testing javascript nodejs

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