Fleabag Quotes API

February 26, 2026 · View on GitHub

💬 Fleabag quotes API. Cheeky little REST API built on Node.js and Express using TypeScript. Designed to return random quote from the critically acclaimed TV series, "Fleabag", for your amusement.

Demo

Random quote

https://fleabag-quotes.livkndt.com/quotes/random

Random inspirational quote image

inspirational quote

API Usage

The API includes several endpoints to interact with.

You can see them all via the Swagger UI: https://fleabag-quotes.livkndt.com/

Libraries

A note on some of the libraries used to ensure high-quality code:

Husky: husky is used to manage git hooks. It helps to prevent bad git commit, git push, and more by automatically running tasks (like tests, linting checks, etc.) before these actions are completed. This ensures that any issues are caught and fixed before they become a problem.
Commitlint: commitlint is paired with Husky to enforce a consistent commit style using conventional commits. This improves readability and navigability of the repo history.
Prettier: prettier is an opinionated code formatter that enforces a consistent style by parsing your code and re-printing it with its own rules. This takes the burden of maintaining a consistent style guide off developers and ensures that the repo code is clean and easy-to-read.
Lint Staged: lint-staged is used alongside Husky and Prettier to only run Prettier on staged files. This makes commits more efficient and ensures that only files that are about to be committed are formatted, saving time and processing power.
Jest: jest is a JavaScript testing framework that is used to run unit tests. It is fast, easy to use, and provides a great experience for developers.
Supertest: supertest is a library for testing HTTP requests, used to test the API endpoints.
Swagger: swagger-ui-express and swagger-jsdoc are used to serve the Swagger API documentation.
Swagger AutoGen: swagger-autogen is used to generate the Swagger API documentation from the code.
Canvas: canvas is used to generate the inspirational quote images.
Helmet: helmet is a collection of 14 smaller middleware functions that set HTTP response headers. It helps to secure the API by setting various HTTP headers.
Express Rate Limit: express-rate-limit is a simple Node.js rate-limiting middleware. It is used to limit repeated requests to public APIs for security purposes.
Nodemon: nodemon is used to watch for changes in the code and automatically restart the server. It makes dev work quicker and easier ✌️

CI

Tests are run on every push to the main branch using GitHub Actions.

Installation

You'll need Node.js and npm installed on your computer to run this application; follow instructions for your own OS.

To install the application:

Clone the repository to your local machine. Navigate to the project folder and install dependencies using npm install.

$ git clone https://github.com/livkndt/fleabag-quotes.git
$ npm install

Test

Tests are written using Jest and Supertest. To run the tests:

$ npm test

Run

You can run the application locally using the following command, using nodemon to watch for changes:

$ npm run dev
> fleabag-quotes@1.0.0 dev
> nodemon

[nodemon] 3.0.1
[nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
[nodemon] watching path(s): src/**/*
[nodemon] watching extensions: ts,js
[nodemon] starting `ts-node ./src/index.ts`
Listening on port: 3000

Generating Swagger API docs

As of writing, the Swagger API docs are generated manually using the following command:

$ npm run swagger-autogen

Then, when the server is running, you can view the docs at: http://localhost:3000/

$ npm run dev

Build

This application is written in TypeScript, so it needs to be compiled to JavaScript before it can be run.

Build the project by running npm run build. This will compile the TypeScript code into JavaScript in the dist folder. Start the server using npm start.

Deployment

Heroku

This app can be easily deployed to Heroku.

$ heroku login
$ cd fleabag-quotes/
$ heroku create your-app-name
$ heroku config:set NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION=false --app your-app-name
$ git push heroku main

The "Automatic deploys" feature of Heroku is used; Heroku is connected via GitHub, and automatically deploys the app when changes are pushed to the main branch & the CI has run successfully.

Vercel

This app is currently deployed using Vercel, and the repo contains relevant configuration to do so.

I had a real struggle getting a node/ts/express app deployed on Vercel, the current configuration works for now but may not be optimal. There are a few key things to note:

vercel.json contains the configuration for the Vercel deployment.
I would not normally commit my build files (under /dist) to git, however Vercel requires compiled JS to work, I thought Vercel did this as part of the build process however I couldn't find a working configuration for the life of me otherwise). I got this tip from a dev.to article.
Vercel also seems to rely on having an index.js file. I used to have a server.js as the starting point for the app, so I had to rename it to get it working.
For this reason, I am using a pre-commit hook to compile the TypeScript code before committing, to ensure that the build files are always up-to-date:
```
  // package.json
  "pre-commit": [
    "ts-check",
    "build",
    "add-build"
  ],
```

A custom CSS URL is passed to swagger to ensure correct styling on Vercel:

  // app.ts
  const CSS_URL = 'https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/swagger-ui/4.1.0/swagger-ui.min.css';
  app.use('/', swaggerUi.serve, swaggerUi.setup(swaggerDocument, { customCssUrl: CSS_URL }));

We welcome contributions! If you notice a bug 🐞, want to add a feature ✨, or think there's something that could be improved 🛠️, feel free to fork the repository and submit a pull request, or raise an issue 🤚.