Tiny API Test — VS Code Extension

Run and explore tat API test files in VS Code.

Features

• Test Explorer — Suites and tests appear in VS Code's built-in Test Explorer panel with run buttons, pass/fail icons, and inline failure messages.
• CodeLens — Run Suite ▶ and Run Test ▶ buttons appear inline in .tat.json, .tat.yml, and .tat.yaml files.
• JSON validation — Schema-based IntelliSense and error highlighting in .tat.json files (powered by the published JSON Schema, no configuration needed).
• YAML support — Full support for .tat.yml and .tat.yaml test files with CodeLens and Test Explorer; use tat: Validate File to validate YAML files.
• Validate command — tat: Validate File from the Command Palette checks JSON or YAML test files without running any HTTP requests.
• Output channel — Full tat output appears in the Tiny API Test output channel.

Requirements

tat must be installed in the workspace or globally:

npm install --save-dev @nanotiny/tiny-api-test

Install the public tat-create skill with:

npx skills add https://github.com/nanotinydev/tat-skills

What is the tat-create skill?

An agent skill is an add-on for an AI assistant that teaches it how to do one job well. In this case, tat-create helps the AI produce tat API test files from an API specification.

After installing the skill, you can ask the AI in your editor to create a .tat.json, .tat.yml, or .tat.yaml file by giving it the API specification. That specification can be an OpenAPI document, Swagger content, endpoint list, sample payloads, auth flow, or expected responses.

If the API requires authentication, tat-create can also generate tests that use a setup hook to fetch a token or other auth values before the suites run.

Example prompt:

Use tat-create to generate a tat test file from this API specification.
Create suites for authentication, user profile, and order creation.
Add assertions for status codes, required fields, and capture any IDs needed by later tests.
If the API needs login, add a setup hook for authentication and reuse the token in later requests.

If the binary is not found automatically, set tat.cliPath in VS Code Settings to the full path.

When working inside this monorepo, the extension also auto-detects the CLI from tat-cli/.

Test file naming

The extension discovers files matching **/*.tat.{json,yml,yaml}. Name your test files with one of these extensions:

• .tat.json — JSON format (e.g. auth.tat.json)
• .tat.yml or .tat.yaml — YAML format (e.g. smoke.tat.yml)

Settings

Notes

• Running a single test from Test Explorer triggers its whole parent suite (the tat CLI filters by suite name, not individual test). All tests in the suite are updated.
• The output channel shows the raw --output json payload from tat, useful for debugging.