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Mock Your Own Tests

keploy mock lets you use Keploy as a mocking framework for your existing test suite — pytest, go test, jest/playwright, or any command that makes network calls. It is a language-agnostic VCR / WireMock that works at the network layer, so your test code needs no SDK and no changes.

  • keploy mock record -c "<your test command>" runs your tests and captures the real outgoing dependency calls (HTTP, MySQL, …) into a named mock set.
  • keploy mock replay -c "<your test command>" runs your tests again with those calls served from the mock set, so the real dependencies can be offline.

Keploy propagates your test runner's exit code, so it drops straight into CI.

Quick start

# 1. Record the dependency calls your tests make (real dependencies must be up)
keploy mock record -c "pytest"

# 2. Replay — the dependencies can now be down; your tests run against the mocks
keploy mock replay -c "pytest"

The mocks are written to keploy/default/mocks.yaml. Commit them like a VCR cassette. Re-recording overwrites the set in place, so a "re-record on merge to main" job produces a clean, reviewable diff.

# go test
keploy mock record -c "go test ./..."
keploy mock replay -c "go test ./..."

# a named set (e.g. per service)
keploy mock record -c "npm test" --name orders
keploy mock replay -c "npm test" --name orders

On-miss policy

When an outgoing call matches no recorded mock, --on-miss decides what happens:

--on-missBehaviour
fail (default)The call gets an error (deterministic); the run fails.
passthroughThe call goes to the real dependency; nothing is persisted.
recordThe call goes to the real dependency and is appended to the set (VCR "new episodes") — incremental refresh.
# A new test hit a new endpoint? Capture just that call and keep it:
keploy mock replay -c "pytest" --on-miss record

Add --strict to fail the run if any recorded mock was missed (a dependency contract drifted), even when the tests themselves passed.

Per-test scoping (optional)

By default a set is recorded and replayed suite-wide. For per-test isolation — so each test gets exactly its own mocks — your test runner can mark test boundaries through a tiny HTTP API. Keploy exports the agent's address into your test process as KEPLOY_MOCK_AGENT; call it at the start and end of each test:

POST  {KEPLOY_MOCK_AGENT}/agent/scope/begin   {"name": "<test name>", "pid": <worker pid>}
POST {KEPLOY_MOCK_AGENT}/agent/scope/end {"name": "<test name>", "pid": <worker pid>}

At record time this writes a per-test mappings.yaml; at replay time it restricts the served pool to that test's mocks. No scope calls ⇒ suite-level, which is still correct.

Parallel workers

Include your worker's PID as pid (e.g. Node process.pid, Python os.getpid()) and Keploy scopes the served pool per worker, so parallel runners — Playwright/jest workers, pytest-xdist, go test -parallel — each get only their own test's mocks with no cross-worker interference. Keploy attributes an outgoing call to a worker by its process (walking the process tree), so calls from a child process the worker spawns are covered too.

pid is optional: omit it and scoping falls back to a single shared pool that assumes tests run sequentially (the pre-parallel behavior). Parallel scoping assumes the runner and the Keploy agent share a PID namespace — the normal case for keploy mock <cmd>; containerized workers in a separate namespace should run suite-level.

pytest (conftest.py):

import os, json, urllib.request, pytest

AGENT = os.environ.get("KEPLOY_MOCK_AGENT")

def _post(path, name):
if not AGENT:
return
body = {"name": name, "pid": os.getpid()} # pid → per-worker isolation under pytest-xdist
req = urllib.request.Request(AGENT + path, data=json.dumps(body).encode(),
headers={"Content-Type": "application/json"}, method="POST")
try:
urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=3).read()
except Exception:
pass

@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
def keploy_scope(request):
_post("/agent/scope/begin", request.node.name)
yield
_post("/agent/scope/end", request.node.name)

go test (TestMain helper):

func scope(path, name string) {
agent := os.Getenv("KEPLOY_MOCK_AGENT")
if agent == "" {
return
}
// pid → per-worker isolation when tests run in parallel
body, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]any{"name": name, "pid": os.Getpid()})
http.Post(agent+path, "application/json", bytes.NewReader(body))
}

// In each test: scope("/agent/scope/begin", t.Name()); defer scope("/agent/scope/end", t.Name())

jest / playwright (a beforeEach/afterEach or reporter hook) makes the same two calls with the test's name and process.pid — the pid is what keeps Playwright's or jest's parallel workers isolated from each other:

// Playwright: in a fixture or beforeEach/afterEach
const post = (path, name) =>
fetch(`${process.env.KEPLOY_MOCK_AGENT}${path}`, {
method: "POST",
headers: {"Content-Type": "application/json"},
body: JSON.stringify({name, pid: process.pid}),
}).catch(() => {});

test.beforeEach(({}, testInfo) => post("/agent/scope/begin", testInfo.title));
test.afterEach(({}, testInfo) => post("/agent/scope/end", testInfo.title));

Platforms

PlatformHow to run
LinuxNative — keploy mock record -c "pytest" (uses eBPF; needs root).
Windows (amd64)Native — same command, from an Administrator shell.
macOS (arm64)Run your tests through a container, e.g. -c "docker compose run tests".

Refresh in CI

Because re-recording overwrites the set in place and the runner's exit code is propagated, refreshing mocks on a merge to main is a normal CI step:

# bring up the real dependencies, then:
keploy mock record -c "pytest" --name default
keploy sanitize # scrub secrets before committing
git add keploy/ && git commit -m "chore: refresh mocks" || echo "no changes"

On Keploy Cloud / Enterprise, keploy mock is registry-first: the set is uploaded after record and downloaded before replay automatically. Pass --local to keep everything on disk (the open-source behaviour).