// the find
typicode/jsonplaceholder
A simple online fake REST API server
A hosted fake REST API with 100 pre-seeded posts, todos, users, and similar resources — useful for prototyping or tutorials when you need an API endpoint that responds with real-looking JSON without setup. The hosted version at jsonplaceholder.typicode.com is the main product; the repo itself is just the Express server behind it.
No auth, no registration, just fire requests at a URL and get back plausible data — genuinely useful in the first five minutes of a tutorial. The resource relationships (posts have comments, users have todos) are set up so you can demo nested routes and filters without inventing your own data schema. Write operations (POST, PUT, DELETE) return correct status codes and echo back request bodies, which is enough for most UI prototyping without needing a real backend.
It is a hosted service, not a library — if typicode's server goes down, your tutorial or demo breaks and you have no recourse. Data is shared and not persisted: a POST appears to succeed but nothing actually changes, which trips up beginners who expect state to survive. The dataset is fixed at 100 posts/10 users/etc. — you cannot add your own resources or change the schema without self-hosting JSON Server separately. Last meaningful activity was mid-2024 and the codebase is small enough that there is nothing left to maintain, so the real risk is the hosted URL going away.