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karatelabs/karate

★ 8,856JavaAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

An all-in-one testing framework for APIs, mock servers, performance testing, and browser automation. Write tests in plain readable syntax without coding in Java, covering everything from API correctness to load testing in one tool.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Karate))
    Testing Types
      API testing
      Mock servers
      Performance testing
      Browser automation
    How tests look
      Plain English syntax
      Cucumber-style
      Behavior-driven
    Tech
      Java ecosystem
      External docs site
    Audience
      QA engineers
      Backend developers
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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Write API tests for a REST or GraphQL service using plain English-style syntax without writing Java code.

USE CASE 2

Simulate fake server responses for third-party APIs your application depends on during integration testing.

USE CASE 3

Run performance load tests against an API endpoint using the same test scripts written for functional testing.

Tech stack

Java

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Full documentation lives at docs.karatelabs.io, not in the repository, the README only points to external guides.

In plain English

Karate is an open-source testing tool that brings several kinds of automated testing together in one place. Instead of using separate tools for testing APIs, simulating fake server responses, checking performance under load, and automating a web browser, Karate offers a single framework that covers all of those. The idea is that a team can write tests for all these concerns without switching tools or learning multiple systems. The project is written in Java and sits in the same ecosystem as tools like Cucumber, which lets teams write tests in plain readable sentences rather than dense code. The topics associated with Karate include API testing, contract testing, and behavior-driven development, which is a style of testing that frames checks as descriptions of how software should behave. These kinds of tests are typically written by developers or quality-assurance engineers who want to verify that one system talks to another correctly. The current README is sparse and points readers to external documentation at docs.karatelabs.io for details. Version 2 of the library is in active development, with notes available in a separate file in the repository. The project is hosted under the karatelabs organization on GitHub and has a commercial company behind it offering support resources. For a non-technical reader, the short version is: Karate is a toolkit for checking that software systems communicate correctly and behave as expected, aimed at development teams who want one consistent tool rather than several. The full documentation lives outside this repository.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I'm using karatelabs/karate to test a REST API. Show me how to write a test that sends a POST request with a JSON body and asserts the response status is 201 and the response body contains a specific field value.
Prompt 2
How do I set up a Karate mock server that returns a predefined JSON response for a specific URL path so I can test my app without hitting the real API?
Prompt 3
Show me how to run a Karate performance test against my API endpoint, set a threshold for p95 response time, and fail the test if the threshold is exceeded.
Prompt 4
How do I organize Karate tests into reusable feature files and call one feature from another to avoid repeating login or setup steps?
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