Juicebox local dev loop

Juicebox Local Dev Loop

Overview

Local development workflow for Juicebox AI-powered people analysis and recruiting API integration. Provides a fast feedback loop with mock profile search results and candidate enrichment data so you can build talent pipeline tools without consuming live API credits. Toggle between mock mode for rapid iteration and sandbox mode for validating against the real Juicebox API.

Environment Setup

cp .env.example .env
# Set your credentials:
# JUICEBOX_API_KEY=jb_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx
# JUICEBOX_BASE_URL=https://api.juicebox.work/v1
# MOCK_MODE=true
npm install express axios dotenv tsx typescript @types/node
npm install -D vitest supertest @types/express

Dev Server

// src/dev/server.ts
import express from "express";
import { createProxyMiddleware } from "http-proxy-middleware";
const app = express();
app.use(express.json());
const MOCK = process.env.MOCK_MODE === "true";
if (!MOCK) {
  app.use("/v1", createProxyMiddleware({
    target: process.env.JUICEBOX_BASE_URL,
    changeOrigin: true,
    headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.JUICEBOX_API_KEY}` },
  }));
} else {
  const { mountMockRoutes } = require("./mocks");
  mountMockRoutes(app);
}
app.listen(3004, () => console.log(`Juicebox dev server on :3004 [mock=${MOCK}]`));

Mock Mode

// src/dev/mocks.ts — realistic people search and enrichment responses
export function mountMockRoutes(app: any) {
  app.post("/v1/search", (req: any, res: any) => res.json({
    total: 150,
    profiles: [
      { id: "prof_1", name: "Jane Smith", title: "Senior Engineer", company: "Google", location: "San Francisco, CA", skills: ["TypeScript", "React", "GCP"] },
      { id: "prof_2", name: "Alex Chen", title: "Staff ML Engineer", company: "Meta", location: "New York, NY", skills: ["Python", "PyTorch", "MLOps"] },
    ],
  }));
  app.get("/v1/profiles/:id", (req: any, res: any) => res.json({
    id: req.params.id, name: "Jane Smith", title: "Senior Engineer", company: "Google",
    experience: [{ role: "Senior Engineer", company: "Google", years: 3 }],
    education: [{ school: "MIT", degree: "BS Computer Science" }],
  }));
  app.get("/v1/usage", (_req: any, res: any) => res.json({ creditsUsed: 12, creditsRemaining: 488, plan: "starter" }));
}

Testing Workflow

npm run dev:mock &                    # Start mock server in background
npm run test                          # Unit tests with vitest
npm run test -- --watch               # Watch mode for rapid iteration
MOCK_MODE=false npm run test:integration  # Integration test against real API

Debug Tips

• Set search limit to 5 in development to avoid burning API credits
• Use /v1/usage endpoint to monitor credit consumption before switching off mock mode
• Juicebox search queries are natural language — test with specific role titles for better results
• Check profiles[].skills array for null values that can break filtering logic
• Log the full request payload to verify boolean filters are serialized correctly

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Fix
401 Unauthorized	Invalid API key	Regenerate at Juicebox dashboard
402 Payment Required	Credits exhausted	Upgrade plan or wait for monthly reset
400 Bad Request	Malformed search query	Validate query structure before sending
429 Rate Limited	Too many requests per minute	Add exponential backoff, use mock mode
ECONNREFUSED :3004	Dev server not running	Run npm run dev:mock first

Resources

• Juicebox API Docs

Next Steps

See juicebox-debug-bundle.