Chimera - A Fast ⚡ & Powerful JSON Server built with Rust 🦀

🔱 Introduction

Chimera is a blazing-fast, configurable JSON server built with Rust and Actix-web. It allows you to serve JSON files as APIs with sorting, pagination, simulated latency, and route-based retrieval. Ideal for prototyping, mock APIs, or rapid development.

Now with automatic data generation and null value simulation, Chimera helps you mock more realistic and dynamic API responses effortlessly.

🚀 Features

• 📂 Serve JSON as an API – Load any JSON file and serve it as structured API endpoints.
• 🧬 Auto Data Generation – Generate mock data automatically from schema-based definitions.
• 🚫 Null Value Simulation – Add controlled nulls to fields for realistic data modeling.
• 📌 Route-based Data Retrieval – Fetch data by route and ID.
• 📊 Sorting Support – Sort entries dynamically based on attributes.
• 📑 Pagination Support – Limit the number of records per request.
• 🐌 Simulated Latency – Mimic real-world API delays for better testing.
• ⚡ Ultra-Fast Performance – Leveraging Rust and Actix-web for speed and efficiency.
• 🛠️ Easy Configuration – Set up ports, file paths, latency, sorting, and pagination via CLI.

📦 Installation

On Windows

On Powershell (Run as Administer)

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://github.com/AMS003010/Chimera/releases/download/v0.5.0/chimera-windows.exe" -OutFile "chimera.exe"

On Powershell (non-privileged)

.\chimera.exe --path data.json

On Linux and Mac

curl -sL $(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/AMS003010/chimera/releases/latest | jq -r '.assets[] | select(.name | test("chimera.*")) | .browser_download_url') -o chimera
chmod +x chimera
./chimera --path data.json

🏗️ Usage

Start the Server

./chimera --path data.json

Available Options

Flag	Description
--path <file>	Path to the JSON file (Required)
--port <port>	Specify the server port (Default: 8080)
--latency <ms>	Simulated latency in milliseconds (Optional)
--sort <route> <asc / desc> <attribute>	Sort route data dynamically
--page <num>	Paginate GET responses (Default: 0 - No Limit)
-X/--auto_generate_data	Enable auto-generation from a schema JSON

📡 API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/ping	Health check (Pong 🏓)
GET	/{route}	Retrieve all data under a route
GET	/{route}/{id}	Retrieve a specific record by ID
POST	/{route}	Add a record under a route
DELETE	/{route}	Delete all records under a route
DELETE	/{route}/{id}	Delete a specific record by ID

🔧 Auto Data Generation

With the -X flag, Chimera can generate data on the fly using a schema JSON structure like:

{
    "routes": [
        {
            "path":"data",
            "no_of_entries": 2,
            "schema": {
                "mssg_id": "id",
                "created_on": "date",
                "mssg": "lorem"
            },
            "null_percentage": 0
        },
        {
            "path":"products",
            "no_of_entries": 7,
            "schema": {
                "id": "id",
                "rsnd": "integer",
                "name": "name",
                "probability": "boolean"
            },
            "null_percentage": 0
        }
    ]
}

Pass this JSON file as an argument to --pass.

• no_of_entries: Number of mock entries to generate
• schema: Define fields and their data type (name, id, date, lorem, etc.)
• null_percentage: Percentage of fields and rows to be randomly set as null

📜 Example JSON File (data.json)

{
  "users": [
    { "id": 1, "name": "Alice", "age": 25 },
    { "id": 2, "name": "Bob", "age": 30 }
  ],
  "posts": [
    { "id": 1, "title": "Rust is amazing!" }
  ]
}

🌟 Why Chimera?

• Lightweight & Fast – Runs efficiently with minimal resource usage.
• Highly Configurable – Tailor it to your needs with CLI flags.
• Built for Developers – Ideal for testing, prototyping, and mock API creation.

📜 License

Chimera is licensed under the MIT License.

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👨‍💻 Maintainers

This project is maintained by @AMS003010.

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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💡 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

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📩 Contact

For any queries or issues, feel free to reach out via GitHub Issues.

Happy Coding! 🚀