✨ Introduction
For the past few weeks, I’ve been building a tool that I personally needed for a long time:
a way to generate complete backend projects without writing the same boilerplate over and over.
The result is GenAPI — a visual API generator that lets you design your data models in a UI and then export a fully working backend project.
🔗 Try it here: https://thegenapi.io
(No login required — 100% free at the moment)
🛠 Why I built this
As developers, we constantly repeat the same setup steps:
- creating models/entities
- defining controllers/services
- configuring routes
- setting up project structure
- writing CRUD logic
- preparing basic validations
- wiring everything into a backend framework
After doing this hundreds of times across Node, Java, Python and PHP projects, I wanted a faster way.
Not AI-generated code.
Not templates.
A real visual builder that outputs a clean, ready-to-run backend.
🧩 How GenAPI works
The workflow is very simple:
- Open the visual builder
You start with an empty canvas where you can create:
- Entities
- Fields
- Types
- Relationships
- Optional constraints
- Choose your backend framework
Once your models are ready, you pick the stack you want to export to.
Right now GenAPI supports:
- Java (Spring Boot)
- Java (Quarkus)
- Node.js (Express)
- Python (FastAPI)
- PHP (Laravel)
- Download the generated ZIP
GenAPI creates a complete backend project with:
- Models / Entities
- Controllers
- Services
- Routes
- Basic CRUD logic
- Validations
- Clean folder structure
- Dependencies installed
- A README with instructions
👉 You run it locally and it just works.
No prompts.
No AI guesswork.
Just deterministic code based on your entities.
🎁 New feature: Starter Templates
To help new users get started quickly, I’m adding starter templates inside the builder:
- Blog API
- E-commerce
- Booking System
- CRM Lite
These load pre-made entities so you can test the tool instantly.
🚀 Who is GenAPI for?
This tool is ideal if you:
- build prototypes frequently
- generate small/medium backends
- teach backend development
- want to speed up CRUD-heavy work
- start many client projects
- hate repeating boilerplate code
🧪 What I’m currently working on
- More export options
- Better UI for relationships
- SAP CAP export (CDS-based, OData out of the box)
- Auto-documented APIs
- Advanced constraints
- Microservice export mode
- A VSCode extension to sync entities
🙏 I’d love your feedback
Since GenAPI is still early, feedback from the dev community is extremely helpful.
- Is the builder intuitive?
- Does the generated code look clean?
- What frameworks should I add next?
- Would this be useful in your workflow?
Comments are 100% welcome.
🔗 Try it here: https://thegenapi.io
Thanks for reading! 🚀
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