Introduction to Catalyst

Catalyst is a lightweight API testing tool. It allows you to define and execute HTTP API tests through a TOML configuration file.

How Catalyst Works

Catalyst operates in a simple way:

1. You define your tests in a .catalyst/tests.toml file
2. You run the tests using the command-line interface
3. Catalyst executes the tests and reports the results

Current Features

Catalyst currently supports:

• HTTP Methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, HEAD, OPTIONS
• Request Configuration: Headers, query parameters, and JSON bodies
• Response Validation: Status code verification
• Variable Storage: Extract values from JSON responses using path notation
• Cookie Extraction: Store cookies from responses for use in subsequent requests
• Variable Substitution: Use stored variables in endpoints, headers, and request bodies
• Test Filtering: Run specific tests by name

Command-Line Interface

Catalyst provides a simple command-line interface with three main commands:

• catalyst run - Execute tests
• catalyst validate - Validate the test configuration file
• catalyst list - List available tests

Configuration File

The configuration file (.catalyst/tests.toml) consists of:

• A global [config] section with settings that apply to all tests
• Multiple [[tests]] sections, each defining a single test

In the following sections, we'll guide you through installing Catalyst and creating your first test configuration.