Express Journey Mapper

Production-grade CLI tool for generating comprehensive API documentation from Express.js codebases with deep code analysis, validation schema extraction, and OpenAPI export

Overview

Express Journey Mapper analyzes your Express.js codebase using AST parsing to automatically discover routes, extract validation schemas (Joi, Zod, express-validator), detect middleware chains, map service dependencies, and generate interactive documentation with OpenAPI export.

Key Benefits:

• Deep Code Analysis - Extracts schemas from Joi/Zod validators, not just route paths
• Middleware Visualization - Shows auth, validation, rate-limiting chains
• Service Dependency Mapping - Tracks database, payment, email service calls
• OpenAPI 3.0 Export - Generate Swagger-compatible API specs automatically
• Multiple Output Formats - HTML, JSON, Markdown, OpenAPI

Installation

# Global installation
npm install -g express-journey-mapper

# Local project installation
npm install --save-dev express-journey-mapper

Quick Start

# Basic usage - scans current directory
express-journey-mapper .

# Or use the short alias
journey-map .

# Scan specific directory
express-journey-mapper ./src

# Specify output location
express-journey-mapper . --output ./docs

# Generate different formats
express-journey-mapper . --format json
express-journey-mapper . --format markdown
express-journey-mapper . --format openapi  # NEW: OpenAPI 3.0 spec

# See what's happening (verbose mode)
express-journey-mapper . --verbose

# Silent mode (errors only)
express-journey-mapper . --quiet

Features

Deep Code Analysis (v1.0.6+)

Validation Schema Extraction

Automatically extracts field definitions from:

• Joi - Joi.object({ amount: Joi.number().required().min(100) })
• Zod - z.object({ email: z.string().email() })
• express-validator - body('email').isEmail()

Outputs include field names, types, required status, and validation rules.

Middleware Chain Visualization

Detects and categorizes middleware:

• Authentication - authenticate, jwt, passport, requireAuth
• Authorization - authorize, requireRole, isAdmin
• Validation - validate, validateRequest, checkSchema
• Rate Limiting - rateLimiter, rateLimit, throttle

Service Dependency Mapping

Tracks service layer interactions:

• Database: Prisma, MongoDB, TypeORM, Sequelize
• Payment: Stripe, Paystack, Braintree
• Email: SendGrid, Mailgun, AWS SES
• Storage: AWS S3, Cloudinary
• Realtime: Socket.io events

Automatic Route Discovery

Scans your codebase to find all Express route definitions:

• app.get/post/put/delete/patch
• router.get/post/put/delete/patch
• router.route('/path').get().post() (chained routes)
• Middleware detection
• Router mounting support

Handler Analysis

Analyzes each route handler to understand:

• Request/response data shapes
• Success and error response paths
• External API calls (axios, fetch, etc.)
• Database operations
• Side effects (email, queues, webhooks, SMS)

Flow Generation

Groups related routes into logical user journeys:

• Automatic grouping by path prefix (/auth/*, /checkout/*)
• Manual flow configuration via config file
• Step ordering based on redirects and common patterns

Multiple Output Formats

HTML (Interactive Viewer)

• Single-file, offline-capable web application
• Authentication badges, middleware chains, request/response bodies
• Service calls and external dependencies visualization
• Professional styling with zero external dependencies

OpenAPI 3.0 (Swagger)

• Standards-compliant API specification
• Request body schemas from validation definitions
• Path and query parameter documentation
• Security schemes (JWT Bearer)
• Ready for Swagger UI, Postman import

JSON (Programmatic Access)

• Structured flow data with all analysis fields
• Machine-readable format
• Integration-ready

Markdown (Documentation)

• Text-based documentation
• README-ready format
• Version control friendly

Command Reference

Basic Commands

# View help and all available options
express-journey-mapper --help
journey-map --help

# Check installed version
express-journey-mapper --version
journey-map -V

Usage Patterns

express-journey-mapper [path] [options]
journey-map [path] [options]

Arguments:

• path - Project root directory to scan (default: current directory .)

All Options

Option	Alias	Description	Default
--output <path>	-o	Output directory for generated files	./journey-map
--format <type>	-f	Output format: html, json, or markdown	html
--config <path>	-c	Path to configuration file	journey-map.config.js
--verbose	-v	Show detailed debug information	false
--quiet	-q	Suppress all output except errors	false
--help	-h	Display help information	-
--version	-V	Display version number	-

Common Usage Examples

# 1. Generate HTML documentation (default)
express-journey-mapper .
# Output: ./journey-map/index.html

# 2. Generate JSON data file
express-journey-mapper . --format json
# Output: ./journey-map/flows.json

# 3. Generate Markdown documentation
express-journey-mapper . --format markdown
# Output: ./journey-map/flows.md

# 4. Custom output directory
express-journey-mapper . --output ./docs/api-flows
# Output: ./docs/api-flows/index.html

# 5. Scan specific directory
express-journey-mapper ./src/routes --output ./docs
# Scans: ./src/routes/**/*.{js,ts}

# 6. Debug mode (see what's being analyzed)
express-journey-mapper . --verbose
# Shows: File paths, route detection, handler analysis details

# 7. Silent mode (CI/CD friendly)
express-journey-mapper . --quiet
# Shows: Nothing (unless error occurs)

# 8. Combine multiple options
express-journey-mapper ./src --output ./docs/flows --format json --verbose

Using with NPX (No Installation)

# Run directly without installing
npx express-journey-mapper .

# Specify version
npx express-journey-mapper@latest . --format html

Global vs Local Installation

Global (recommended for CLI usage):

npm install -g express-journey-mapper
express-journey-mapper .

Local (for project-specific version):

npm install --save-dev express-journey-mapper
npx express-journey-mapper .

Update to Latest Version

# If installed globally
npm update -g express-journey-mapper

# If installed locally
npm update express-journey-mapper

Configuration

Create a journey-map.config.js file for advanced customization:

export default {
  // Output settings
  output: './docs/api-flows',
  format: 'html',

  // Scanning options
  entryPoints: ['./src/app.ts', './src/server.ts'],
  exclude: ['**/*.test.ts', '**/*.spec.ts'],

  // Manual flow definitions (optional)
  flows: {
    authentication: {
      title: 'User Authentication Flow',
      description: 'Complete user authentication journey',
      steps: [
        {
          endpoint: 'POST /api/auth/register',
          description: 'User registration',
          successMessage: 'Account created successfully'
        },
        {
          endpoint: 'POST /api/auth/verify',
          description: 'Email verification',
          successMessage: 'Email verified'
        },
        {
          endpoint: 'POST /api/auth/login',
          description: 'User login',
          successMessage: 'Logged in successfully'
        }
      ]
    }
  }
};

Programmatic API

import { generateJourneyMap } from 'express-journey-mapper';

async function generateDocs() {
  const flows = await generateJourneyMap({
    rootPath: './src',
    output: './docs',
    format: 'html'
  });

  console.log(`Generated ${flows.length} user flows`);
}

CLI Output Examples

Standard Mode

Express Journey Mapper v1.0.0

Scanning project...
  Found 47 source files

Discovering routes...
  Found 23 routes

Analyzing handlers...
  Analyzed 23 handlers

Building user flows...
  Generated 3 flows:
  • Authentication Flow (3 steps)
  • Checkout Flow (4 steps)
  • Profile Management (2 steps)

Generating documentation...
  ✓ HTML: docs/index.html

Complete. Duration: 2.3s

Verbose Mode

Includes detailed debug information about route discovery, handler analysis, and flow building.

Quiet Mode

Suppresses all output except errors - ideal for CI/CD pipelines.

Error Handling

The tool provides clear, actionable error messages:

✗ Error: No Express routes found

Suggestions:
  → Verify that your code uses standard Express patterns (app.get, app.post, etc.)
  → Check that route files are included in the scan path
  → Try specifying entry points in a config file: --config ./journey.config.js

Error code: NO_ROUTES_FOUND

Failed after 0.5s

Requirements

• Node.js 16.0.0 or higher
• Express.js application with route definitions
• TypeScript or JavaScript source files

Performance

Project Size	Files	Routes	Analysis Time
Small	<50	<20	<2 seconds
Medium	50-200	20-100	<10 seconds
Large	200-500	100-300	<30 seconds

Troubleshooting

No routes found

• Ensure your code uses standard Express patterns
• Check that route files are not excluded
• Try specifying entryPoints in config

Handlers not analyzed correctly

• Verify handler functions are in the same file or properly imported
• Check for non-standard response patterns
• Use --verbose to see detailed analysis

Performance issues

• Exclude test files and build outputs
• Use specific entryPoints instead of scanning entire project
• Consider using --quiet mode for CI/CD

License

MIT

Roadmap

• Support for Fastify, NestJS, Koa
• Watch mode for live updates
• VS Code extension
• Test generation
• Postman/Insomnia collection export
• GraphQL support
• WebSocket flow mapping