Switching from openai-responses to aimock

openai-responses intercepts httpx calls to mock OpenAI responses inline. aimock runs a real HTTP server with fixture files—no monkey-patching, works with any framework, supports streaming.

Before / After

Side-by-side: mocking a chat completion with openai-responses vs. aimock.

openai-responses (~14 lines) py

import openai_responses
from openai import OpenAI

@openai_responses.mock()
def test_chat(openai_mock):
    openai_mock.chat.completions.create.response = {
        "choices": [{
            "index": 0,
            "message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "Hello!"},
            "finish_reason": "stop"
        }]
    }
    client = OpenAI()
    result = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4o", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "hi"}]
    )
    assert result.choices[0].message.content == "Hello!"

aimock (6 lines) py

from openai import OpenAI

def test_chat(aimock):
    aimock.on_message("hi", content="Hello!")
    client = OpenAI(base_url=aimock.url + "/v1", api_key="test")
    result = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4o", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "hi"}]
    )
    assert result.choices[0].message.content == "Hello!"

Or with fixture files:

fixtures/chat.json json

{
  "fixtures": [
    {
      "match": { "userMessage": "hi" },
      "response": { "content": "Hello!" }
    }
  ]
}

test_chat.py py

def test_chat(aimock):
    aimock.load_fixtures("./fixtures/chat.json")
    client = OpenAI(base_url=aimock.url + "/v1", api_key="test")
    result = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4o", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "hi"}]
    )
    assert result.choices[0].message.content == "Hello!"

Step-by-step migration

Install aimock-pytest (replaces pip install openai-responses)
```
pip install aimock-pytest
```
Convert inline mock definitions to fixture files or on_message() calls. Instead of constructing the full response envelope manually, just specify content or toolCalls—aimock generates the envelope automatically.
Replace the decorator — @openai_responses.mock() becomes the aimock pytest fixture parameter (auto-provided by aimock-pytest).
Point the client at aimock — replace OpenAI() with OpenAI(base_url=aimock.url + "/v1", api_key="test").

Feature mapping

openai-responses	aimock
`@openai_responses.mock()` decorator	`aimock` pytest fixture (auto-provided)
`openai_mock.chat.completions.create.response = {...}`	`aimock.on_message("pattern", content="...")`
Partial envelope (choices required, other fields auto-filled)	Just specify `content` or `toolCalls`—envelope auto-generated
`openai_mock.chat.completions.create.route.calls`	`aimock.journal`
Python + OpenAI only	Python, TypeScript, any LLM provider
Manual SSE chunk construction (`streaming.EventStream`)	Automatic SSE streaming from fixture content
No fixture files	JSON fixture files with match patterns
httpx monkey-patching	Real HTTP server—works with any HTTP client
✗ No record/replay	`npx aimock --record` captures real API calls
✗ No CI action	`CopilotKit/aimock@v1` GitHub Action
✗ No chaos testing	Error injection, mid-stream disconnects

What you gain

🌐

Cross-process, cross-language

Your Python tests, Node.js frontend, Go microservices, and Playwright E2E tests all hit the same mock server. No per-language patching.

⚡

Built-in SSE for 10+ providers

OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Bedrock, Azure, Vertex AI, Ollama, Cohere. No manual chunk construction.

🔌

WebSocket APIs

OpenAI Realtime, Responses WS, Gemini Live. openai-responses cannot intercept WebSocket.

⏺

Record & Replay

Proxy real APIs, save as fixtures, replay forever. npx aimock --record --provider-openai https://api.openai.com

📁

Fixture files

JSON files on disk. Version-controlled. Shared across tests. No hand-crafted envelopes.

💥

Chaos testing

Inject latency, drop chunks, corrupt payloads mid-stream. Test your error handling under realistic failure conditions.

CI with GitHub Action

One step replaces all the httpx monkey-patching infrastructure in CI.

.github/workflows/test.yml yaml

name: Tests
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: "3.12"

      - name: Start aimock
        uses: CopilotKit/aimock@v1
        with:
          fixtures: ./fixtures

      - run: pip install -r requirements.txt
      - run: pytest
        env:
          OPENAI_BASE_URL: http://127.0.0.1:4010/v1
          OPENAI_API_KEY: mock-key

CLI / Docker quick start

CLI sh

npx aimock -p 4010 -f ./fixtures

Docker sh

docker run -d -p 4010:4010 \
  -v $(pwd)/fixtures:/fixtures \
  ghcr.io/copilotkit/aimock:latest \
  -p 4010 -f /fixtures