API Smoke Testing

Verify all API endpoints return healthy responses by combining codebase analysis with HTTP requests.

Workflow

1. Discover Routes

Search the codebase for API route definitions:

Next.js (App Router): app/api/**/route.ts Next.js (Pages Router): pages/api/**/*.ts Express: Look for app.get(, app.post(, router.get(, etc. Django: Look for urlpatterns in urls.py FastAPI: Look for @app.get(, @app.post(, decorators Rails: Look for routes.rb

Build a list of endpoints with their HTTP methods.

2. Ensure Server is Running

Check terminal files for a running dev server. If none found, start one.

3. Hit Every Endpoint

For each route:

curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -X <METHOD> http://localhost:<PORT><PATH>

For endpoints that require a body (POST/PUT/PATCH), send a minimal valid JSON:

curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -X POST http://localhost:<PORT><PATH> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}'

4. Classify Results

Status	Meaning
200-299	OK
301/302	Redirect (OK)
400	Bad request (expected for empty POST bodies)
401/403	Auth required (expected for protected routes)
404	Route not found (BUG — route exists in code but not served)
500	Server error (BUG)
000/timeout	Server not responding (BUG)

5. Report

API Smoke Test Results:
  Tested: 15 endpoints
  Passed: 12
  Auth required: 2 (GET /api/user, POST /api/settings)
  Errors:
    500 — POST /api/webhooks/stripe (TypeError: Cannot read property 'id' of undefined)
    404 — GET /api/v2/health (route defined but not mounted)

6. Fix Errors

For 500 errors, read the terminal output for the stack trace and fix the root cause. For 404s, check that the route file is in the correct location and properly exported.