I Got Tired of Logging Every API Call… So I Built an npm Package

When debugging applications, one of the most common tasks is tracking API requests and responses.

Developers often add logs everywhere:

• Before sending a request
• After receiving a response
• While debugging errors
• While analyzing performance

This quickly becomes messy and repetitive.

So I built a small npm package called auto-api-observe that automatically observes API calls in JavaScript applications.

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The Problem

When working on large applications, especially microservices or frontend apps, debugging API calls can be frustrating.

Typical workflow:

• Add console logs before API calls
• Add logs after responses
• Add error logging
• Remove everything later

Example:

console.log("Request:", url);

fetch(url)
  .then(res => {
     console.log("Response:", res);
     return res.json();
  })
  .catch(err => {
     console.error("Error:", err);
  });

Now imagine doing this across hundreds of API calls.

This is where auto-api-observe helps.

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What auto-api-observe Does

This package allows you to observe API requests and responses automatically without modifying every API call.

Features:

• Observe API requests
• Observe API responses
• Capture errors
• Works with JavaScript applications
• Simple integration

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Installation

npm install auto-api-observe

Basic Usage

import { observeApi } from "auto-api-observe";

observeApi({
  onRequest: (req) => {
    console.log("API Request:", req);
  },
  onResponse: (res) => {
    console.log("API Response:", res);
  },
  onError: (err) => {
    console.error("API Error:", err);
  }
});

Now every API call can be observed automatically.

Example Output

API Request: GET /users
API Response: 200 OK
API Error: Network timeout

This makes debugging and monitoring much easier.

Use Cases

This package can be useful for:

• Debugging API issues
• Logging request/response flows
• Monitoring application behaviour
• Performance analysis
• Development debugging

Why I Built This

While working on large production applications, I often needed a quick way to observe API calls without modifying every request manually.

So I built auto-api-observe as a lightweight solution to simplify this process.

npm Package

You can check it here:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/auto-api-observe

GitHub

If you find it useful, feel free to star the repository and contribute.

Feedback

I would love feedback from the developer community.

If you have ideas for improvements or new features, feel free to open an issue or pull request.