Emulate Seed

Emulate Seed Configs

Generate and manage seed configs for emulate (Apache-2.0) — Vercel Labs' stateful API emulation tool. Each category has individual rule files in rules/ loaded on-demand.

Paired agent: This skill pairs with the emulate-engineer subagent (subagent_type: "emulate-engineer"). When a task involves generating a full emulate config from scratch, webhook HMAC setup, CI pipeline integration, or parallel-worker port isolation, spawn the agent rather than handling it inline — it has the full 12-emulator service-port matrix and seed-rules in context.

Not mocks. Emulate provides full state machines with cascading deletes, cursor pagination, webhook delivery, and HMAC signature verification. Create a PR via the API and it appears in GET /repos/:owner/:repo/pulls. Delete a repo and its issues, PRs, and webhooks cascade-delete.

New in 2026-04 (emulate 0.4.x)

• Modular @emulators/* packages — each service is its own package (@emulators/github, @emulators/stripe, etc.); top-level emulate re-exports createEmulator and the CLI.
• 4 new services (12 total): mongoatlas:4007, okta:4008, resend:4009, stripe:4010 with drop-in seed YAML blocks.
• Resend local inbox — GET http://localhost:4009/inbox returns captured emails for assertions without hitting a real provider.
• Stripe hosted checkout — real session redirect flow + checkout.session.completed/expired webhook delivery, suitable for E2E payment tests.
• MongoDB Atlas — Admin API v2 (projects/clusters/DB users) + Data API v1 with full CRUD + aggregate.
• Okta OIDC — full discovery, JWKS, authorize/token/userinfo/revoke/introspect plus Users/Groups/Apps CRUD.
• Entra / Apple / Slack expansions (v0.4.0) — PKCE + refresh rotation (Entra), RS256 JWKS (Apple), OAuth v2 consent UI (Slack).
• @emulators/adapter-next — catch-all Next.js route handler runs emulators on the same origin as the app; fixes OAuth callback URL drift on Vercel preview deploys.

Quick Reference

Total: 5 rules across 5 categories

Quick Start

# Install (packages published under @emulators/* scope)
npm install --save-dev emulate

# Start all services
npx emulate

# Start specific services with seed data
npx emulate --service github,stripe --seed ./emulate.config.yaml

# Generate a starter config
npx emulate init --service github

Services (0.4.1 — 12 emulators)

See references/api-coverage.md for full endpoint lists.

Next.js Adapter (0.4+) — @emulators/adapter-next

Runs emulators on the same origin as your Next.js app via a catch-all route handler. Fixes the OAuth callback URL drift problem on Vercel preview deploys — no more http://localhost:4001 redirect mismatches.

// next.config.js
const { withEmulate } = require('@emulators/adapter-next')
module.exports = withEmulate({ /* your next config */ })

// app/api/[...emulate]/route.ts
import { createEmulateHandler } from '@emulators/adapter-next'
export const { GET, POST } = createEmulateHandler({
  services: ['github', 'stripe', 'resend'],
  persistence: { /* load(), save() or built-in filePersistence */ },
})

Seed Config Structure

A seed config pre-populates the emulator with tokens, users, repos, and projects so tests start from a known state.

# emulate.config.yaml
tokens:
  dev_token:
    login: yonatangross
    scopes: [repo, workflow, admin:org]
  ci_token:
    login: ci-bot
    scopes: [repo]

github:
  users:
    - login: yonatangross
      name: Yonatan Gross
    - login: ci-bot
      name: CI Bot
  repos:
    - owner: yonatangross
      name: my-project
      private: false
      default_branch: main
      topics: [typescript, testing]

vercel:
  users:
    - username: yonatangross
      email: yonaigross@gmail.com
  projects:
    - name: my-docs
      framework: next

# NEW in 0.4.x — drop-in seed blocks
okta:
  users:
    - login: alice@example.com
      firstName: Alice
      lastName: Smith
  groups: [{ name: Everyone }, { name: Admins }]
  apps: [{ name: My Web App }]
  authorization_servers:
    - name: default
      audiences: ["api://default"]

resend:
  domains: [{ name: example.com }]
  api_keys: [{ name: default }]
  # In tests: GET http://localhost:4009/inbox to assert captured emails

stripe:
  customers:
    - name: Test Customer
      email: customer@example.com
  products: [{ name: Pro Plan }, { name: Starter Plan }]
  prices:
    - { product: Pro Plan, unit_amount: 4900, currency: usd, recurring: { interval: month } }
    - { product: Starter Plan, unit_amount: 1900, currency: usd, recurring: { interval: month } }
  # Webhook delivery fires on checkout.session.completed / expired

mongoatlas:
  projects: [{ name: my-project }]
  clusters: [{ project: my-project, name: my-cluster }]
  database_users: [{ project: my-project, username: app-user }]

See rules/seed-config.md for full schema and best practices.

Programmatic SDK

Service packages live under the @emulators/* scope (e.g., @emulators/github, @emulators/stripe). The programmatic API (createEmulator) is exported from the top-level emulate package.

import { createEmulator } from 'emulate'

const github = await createEmulator({ service: 'github', port: 4001 })
// github.url -> 'http://localhost:4001'

// State is real — create a PR and it appears in the list
const res = await fetch(`${github.url}/repos/org/repo/pulls`, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer dev_token' },
  body: JSON.stringify({ title: 'Test PR', head: 'feature', base: 'main' })
})

const prs = await fetch(`${github.url}/repos/org/repo/pulls`)
// -> includes the PR we just created

// Cleanup
github.reset()       // Synchronous state wipe
await github.close() // Shut down server

See references/sdk-patterns.md for advanced patterns (multi-service, lifecycle hooks).

Webhook Delivery

Emulate delivers real webhooks with HMAC-SHA256 signatures when state changes:

import crypto from 'crypto'

function verifyWebhook(payload: string, signature: string, secret: string): boolean {
  const expected = 'sha256=' + crypto
    .createHmac('sha256', secret)
    .update(payload)
    .digest('hex')
  return crypto.timingSafeEqual(Buffer.from(signature), Buffer.from(expected))
}

See rules/webhook-setup.md for webhook receiver patterns.

CI Integration

# .github/workflows/test.yml
jobs:
  test:
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Start emulate
        run: npx emulate --service github --seed .emulate/ci.yaml &
      - name: Wait for emulate
        run: sleep 2
      - name: Run tests
        run: npm test
        env:
          GITHUB_API_BASE: http://localhost:4001
          VERCEL_API_BASE: http://localhost:4000

Parallel Test Execution

Each test worker gets its own port to avoid race conditions:

// vitest.config.ts
const workerPort = 4001 + parseInt(process.env.VITEST_WORKER_ID || '0')

See rules/parallel-ci.md for full parallel isolation patterns.

Decision Matrix

Use emulate when:

• Testing code that calls GitHub, Vercel, Google, Slack, Apple, Entra, AWS, Okta, Resend, Stripe, or MongoDB Atlas
• You need state persistence across multiple API calls in a test
• You want webhook delivery with real HMAC signatures (GitHub, Stripe)
• You need cascading side-effects (delete repo -> PRs cascade-delete)
• You need to assert on sent emails without hitting a real provider (Resend local /inbox)
• You need hosted Stripe checkout sessions with real redirect flow in tests

Use MSW/Nock when:

• Mocking arbitrary HTTP APIs not covered by emulate
• You need in-browser interception (MSW)
• Tests only need single request/response pairs

Related Skills

• testing-integration — Integration test patterns (emulate as first choice for API tests)
• testing-e2e — End-to-end test patterns with emulated backends
• testing-unit — Unit test patterns (use emulate for API-dependent units)
• security-patterns — Auth token patterns (emulate token seeding)

CLI Reference

See references/cli-reference.md for all CLI flags and commands.

SDK Patterns

See references/sdk-patterns.md for programmatic createEmulate() usage.