Reference

CLI

Complete reference for the mocko command. For a guided tour of the same options, see Running Mocko: CLI.

Usage

mocko [options] [path to mocks folder]
mocko validate [options] <path to mocks folder>

The mocks folder is optional; without it, file mocks are disabled for the session. Requires Node.js 20.19 or newer, installed with npm install -g @mocko/cli.

Options

Flag	Default	Description
`-h`, `--help`		Show usage help.
`-v`, `--version`		Show the installed version.
`-w`, `--watch`	off	Watch the mocks folder and reload on file changes.
`-p`, `--port`	`8080`	Port for the mock server.
`-u`, `--url`	unset	Proxy target for requests no mock matches. Unset means unmatched requests return 404.
`-t`, `--timeout`	`30000`	Max milliseconds to wait for a proxied response.
`--no-ui`	UI on	Disable the control panel.
`-r`, `--redis`	unset	Redis URL enabling Redis mode, e.g. `redis://localhost:6379`.
`-P`, `--ui-port`	`6625`	Port for the control panel.

mocko validate

mocko validate [options] <path to mocks folder>

Checks every mock in the folder and exits with code 1 if any of them is broken, without starting a server. Problems that are only warnings when the server starts fail validation, which makes it a good gate for CI. See Validate Mocks in CI for a complete pipeline.

Validation fails on:

HCL files that fail to parse (these are ignored at startup)
Invalid mock or host definitions: unknown methods, invalid status codes, conflicting format and Content-Type, and similar
Routes that fail to map, such as two mocks on the same method and path or query parameters in the path
Template bodies that fail to compile (these mocks respond 500 to every request)
Mocks on the reserved /__mocko__ path
Folders with no mocks at all

Suspicious but valid definitions produce warnings instead: paths with Express-style :param parameters, * wildcards, or ${param} placeholders, and mocks referencing a host that no host block defines. Warnings do not fail validation unless --strict is set.

Flag	Default	Description
`-h`, `--help`		Show usage help.
`-s`, `--strict`	off	Treat warnings as errors.
`-j`, `--json`	off	Print a machine-readable JSON report instead of the human output.

Exit code 0 means the folder is valid, anything else means it is not: validation errors, warnings under --strict, or a folder that does not exist.

Examples

$mocko --watch mocks

$mocko -p 4000 -u https://demo-api.mockoapp.net --watch mocks

$mocko --no-ui -r redis://localhost:6379 mocks

Notes

The UI is enabled by default; the CLI generates a fresh internal secret per run to connect it to the mock server.
Hidden files and folders (names starting with a dot) inside the mocks folder are ignored.
On unsupported Node versions the CLI exits with a link to the update instructions instead of failing later at runtime.