Quickstart (3 Minutes)

Get up and running with RouteCase and execute your first API test suite in under 3 minutes.

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Step 1: Install RouteCase

Open the VS Code command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux or Cmd+Shift+P on macOS) and run:

code --install-extension UtkarshKumar.routecase

Or search for RouteCase in the Extensions tab (Ctrl+Shift+X).

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Step 2: Create a Test Suite

In your project root, create a file named quickstart.rcase:

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/UTKARSHKUMAR712/routecase/main/schemas/rcase.schema.json",
  "name": "GitHub User API Test",
  "baseUrl": "https://api.github.com",
  "headers": {
    "User-Agent": "RouteCase-Quickstart"
  },
  "tests": [
    {
      "name": "Fetch Public User Profile",
      "method": "GET",
      "path": "/users/{username}",
      "success": [
        {
          "name": "Fetch Octocat User Profile",
          "params": {
            "username": "octocat"
          },
          "expect": {
            "status": 200,
            "bodyContains": "octocat",
            "maxDurationMs": 2500
          }
        }
      ],
      "errors": [
        {
          "name": "Non-existent user returns 404",
          "params": {
            "username": "non-existent-user-routecase-9999999"
          },
          "expect": {
            "status": 404,
            "bodyContains": "Not Found"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

::: tip No Local Server Required! This test suite uses GitHub’s public REST API, so you can test RouteCase immediately without needing to run a local server. :::

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Step 3: Run the Tests

You will see clickable CodeLens actions appear directly above the JSON code in the editor:

[▶ Run All Cases]  [📊 Results Dashboard]

1. Click ▶ Run All Cases at the top of the file.
2. Watch the live badge update to ✓ PASS (200 • 180ms).
3. Click the RouteCase icon in the VS Code Activity Bar on the left to see the test tree view.
4. Click on any test result to open the Interactive Results Panel and inspect the full response headers and payload preview!

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What Just Happened?

1. RouteCase validated the .rcase syntax against its JSON schema.
2. The path template /users/{username} was substituted with octocat and URL-encoded.
3. Node’s HTTP/HTTPS engine executed the request with custom headers.
4. The response status (200 OK), response body (octocat), and latency were asserted.
5. The second error case was executed with the invalid username, verifying that GitHub properly returned 404 Not Found.

Next Up: Learn how to install and configure RouteCase for daily development in the Installation Guide.