APIWeave

Visual API Test Story Builder. Build, run, and inspect API test workflows on a canvas.

What Is APIWeave?

APIWeave is a local-first, open-source desktop app for visual API testing. You assemble test workflows on a React Flow canvas from drag-and-drop nodes (HTTP request, SSE stream, assertion, delay, merge, call workflow, start, end), chain requests with extracted variables and dynamic functions, run them against an environment, and inspect results node by node. Projects group related workflows in a fixed order. Environments and secrets live on your machine, encrypted at rest. An optional MCP bridge lets a local agent drive the same app; there are no webhooks or remote triggers.

APIWeave ships as a single-process Electron app with an embedded SQLite store. There is no server to deploy, no MongoDB to install, no SSO to configure, no ports to expose. Download the installer, run it, and you are inside the canvas in seconds.

Git sync is built in: a workspace can be tracked in git and kept in step with a remote you own, on GitHub, GitLab or any host. See Keep Tests in a Git Repository.

Quick Start

Recommended for most users: download the installer for your OS from the latest release. The installer puts a self-contained app on your machine. No Python, no Node, no database, no Docker.

For contributors: clone the repo, install the desktop and frontend dependencies, and run the dev shell. See the Developer Guide for the dev workflow.

npm 12+ note: If your global npm config has allow-scripts=false, Electron's postinstall will be blocked; scripts/setup.sh downloads the binary manually in that case.

Desktop App

APIWeave ships as a self-contained Electron app. The app is single-process: the renderer (the React UI), the main process (the Node.js execution engine), the embedded SQLite store, and the optional local MCP bridge all run inside one process, talking to each other over Electron IPC. No external services. No open ports on your network. No telemetry.

Download the installer for your OS from the latest release, or build it locally with scripts/desktop.ps1 build (Windows) or scripts/desktop.sh build (Linux/macOS).

Windows

Download APIWeave-<version>-win-x64.zip, extract it and run the .exe inside (the bare .exe on the release is the in-app updater's download). It installs per-user (no admin prompt) and adds a Start-menu entry. An .msi is also published for managed, per-machine deployment. The installer and binaries are not code-signed, so SmartScreen may warn on first launch — choose More info → Run anyway.

macOS

Download the mac-x64.dmg build for Intel Macs or the mac-arm64.dmg build for Apple Silicon, then drag APIWeave to Applications. The build is unsigned/un-notarized, so the first launch is blocked by Gatekeeper: right-click the app → Open, or clear the quarantine flag with xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/APIWeave.app.

Linux

Four artifacts are published; pick what fits your distro:

• AppImage — portable, runs on any distro. chmod +x APIWeave-<version>-linux-x86_64.AppImage && ./APIWeave-<version>-linux-x86_64.AppImage.
• .deb — Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint: sudo apt install ./APIWeave-<version>-linux-amd64.deb.
• .rpm — Fedora, RHEL, and openSUSE: sudo dnf install ./APIWeave-<version>-linux-x86_64.rpm.
• .pacman — Arch and Manjaro: sudo pacman -U APIWeave-<version>-linux-x64.pacman.

Arch Linux + Hyprland (Wayland). The app requests native Wayland automatically (ozone-platform-hint=auto), so it runs directly on Hyprland with no XWayland. Two Arch-specific notes:

• The AppImage needs FUSE 2 (sudo pacman -S fuse2), or run it with ./APIWeave-<version>-linux-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run. The .pacman package has no such requirement — prefer it on Arch.
• If a compositor quirk forces XWayland, launch with an explicit override: apiweave --ozone-platform=wayland (or --ozone-platform=x11 to force XWayland).

The Linux binaries are built on Ubuntu (older glibc), so they run on Arch's newer glibc without issue.

Features

The feature guides are the deep reference for everything you can do in APIWeave. Each is a self-contained tutorial with worked examples and a troubleshooting section.

• Workflows and Nodes: canvas, the eight node types, toolbar actions, expected-status negative tests.
• Variables and Extractors: the four placeholder namespaces and how to pull values from responses.
• Node Presets: save a node's configuration under a name and reuse it across the workspace.
• Visualization and Debugging: run timeline, variable provenance, secret resolution confidence, and camera-follow during runs.
• Projects: ordered groups of workflows and .awecollection v2 export and import (references only).
• Keep Tests in a Git Repository: track a workspace in git and sync it with a remote, sign in to GitHub or GitLab from the header, create the workspace's repository from the app, and open it on another machine.
• Environments and Secrets: local environments, inheritance from a base environment, the encrypted secret store, and the metadata-only display.
• MCP Integration: a local loopback HTTP bridge for AI agents. The desktop app has no webhooks and no exposed ports.
• Swagger and OpenAPI Import: turn a spec into reusable request templates.
• Run Tests in CI: runs a workspace repository, an exported workflow or an project under plain Node, exits non-zero on failure and writes JUnit or HTML reports. No Electron, no window, secrets from CI variables.

Documentation

The Documentation Hub is the entry point for every user-facing guide. It routes you through three paths (use it, build with it, fix something) and links to the reference index. Start there for install paths, the first-workflow tutorial, and the central FAQ.

There is no operations section in the desktop app: no authentication to set up, no deployment to plan, no security guide to follow beyond the encrypted-at-rest secret store, and no audit log. Everything is on your machine. The app checks GitHub Releases for updates on your chosen schedule — see Release and Updates.

Tech Stack

• Frontend (renderer): React 18, React Flow 12 (@xyflow/react), Vite 5, Tailwind CSS 3, Zustand 5, TypeScript strict.
• Desktop shell: Electron 44, esbuild, electron-builder, electron-updater.
• Local store: better-sqlite3 (embedded SQLite, single file).
• IPC: a typed handler registry in the main process. The same handlers back the local MCP HTTP bridge on the loopback interface.
• Secrets: Libsodium sealed-box write-only ingress, opened at run time with the per-install keyfile, which is sealed by the OS keychain where one is available. Resolved values are masked in run history. No plaintext on the wire, no read API for stored values.
• Execution: an in-process RunScheduler driven by IPC events streamed to the renderer.

Project Layout

apiweave/
  app/
    src/       React app, ReactFlow canvas, contexts, components (the renderer)
    electron/  Electron main process and preload entry points
    core/      IPC handlers, repositories, runner, services, MCP bridge, and the headless CLI (core/cli)
    shared/    Cross-process TypeScript contracts and Zod schemas
    package.json
  scripts/     setup / start / build scripts (Linux + Windows)
  docs/        User-facing documentation (the hub and all guides)

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, branching, commit style, and the pull-request flow. The developer workflow lives in AGENTS.md.

Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md for what's next. For historical releases, see CHANGELOG.md.