fakes

A Go library for generating fake data, built for internationalization. It exists because the existing Go fake libraries lacked the locale coverage and format control we needed.

Standards first — formats, names and structures follow international and local standards first and foremost.
Locale-aware — names, addresses, postal codes and phone numbers follow per-locale data and formats. Locales are always full language + territory tags (sv_SE, never sv).
Data lives in JSON — all source data is recursive JSON on disk, read when you create a faker and then served from memory. Add or change locales without touching the library.
Composable — templates nest without limit: weighted choices, character classes and sub-templates combine to model any format.
Reproducible — seed a faker and it emits the same sequence every time.
Zero dependencies — standard library only.

Install

go get github.com/Timewave-AB/fakes

Requires Go 1.26+.

Usage

Point New at a locale directory, then generate values by category path with Fake. The first path segment names a category (a JSON file); deeper dotted segments descend into it.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"github.com/Timewave-AB/fakes"
)

func main() {
	f, err := fakes.New("./locales/sv_SE")
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	for _, path := range []string{"person", "address", "phone", "address.locality"} {
		v, err := f.Fake(path)
		if err != nil {
			log.Fatal(err)
		}
		fmt.Printf("%-18s %s\n", path, v)
	}
}

person             Sara Eriksson
address            Kungsvägen 68
                   379 17 Stockholm
phone              072-402 91 67
address.locality   Linköping

Seed a faker for reproducible output — same seed + locale yields an identical sequence, handy for stable tests:

a, _ := fakes.New("./locales/sv_SE", fakes.WithSeed(42))
b, _ := fakes.New("./locales/sv_SE", fakes.WithSeed(42))
av, _ := a.Fake("person")
bv, _ := b.Fake("person")
av == bv // true

A *Fakes is not safe for concurrent use — create one per goroutine.

Locales

The library ships a ready-to-use set under locales/ (en_US, sv_SE). Pass New the path to one of them, a copy, or your own directory — anywhere on disk.

The directory's name is the locale and must be a full tag (sv_SE, never sv). Any casing or separator is accepted and canonicalised (sv-se, SV_SE → sv_SE); a non-full name returns an error.

Locale data format

Each JSON file in a locale directory is a category named after the file (address.json → address), rendered by Fake("address"). Drop in a new file or folder — no code change, no recompile.

Every value is a node, one of three shapes, nestable without limit:

Node	JSON	Meaning
literal	`"Malmö"`	emitted verbatim — never formatted
choice	`["a", "b", …]`	one element, picked at random
template	`{"format": "…", …}`	a format string plus the named sub-nodes it references

Weight. A template node may carry a weight (default 1) to skew its odds within a choice:

[
  { "format": "#070-000 00 00", "weight": 10 },
  { "format": "#01-000 00 00" },
  { "format": "#010-000 00 00" }
]

Format string. Every character is literal except:

Token	Expands to
`0`	digit 0–9
`1`	digit 1–9
`A`	letter A–Z
`a`	letter a–z
`#`	escape — the next char is literal (`#0` → `0`, `##` → `#`)
`{name}`	render the sibling field `name`

{a|b} renders one of the sibling fields a or b, chosen at random.

Putting it together (person.json):

[
  {
    "format": "{prefix}{femalefirst|malefirst} {last}",
    "femalefirst": ["Anna", "Astrid", "Elin"],
    "malefirst": ["Anders", "Erik", "Gustav"],
    "last": [
      { "format": "{first}sson", "first": ["Ander", "Erik", "Karl"] },
      ["Berg", "von Flemming"]
    ],
    "prefix": [
      "",
      { "format": "{string} ", "string": ["dr", "prof"], "weight": 0.05 }
    ]
  }
]

This yields e.g. Anna Eriksson, Erik Berg, or rarely dr Astrid von Flemming. Any field is reachable by dotted path — Fake("person.last") renders just a surname; choices along the path are resolved at random.

Performance

Each file is parsed, validated and weight-indexed once, in New. After that a Fake call costs about what its output costs — it scans the chosen format and renders nested tokens, independent of how large your lists are:

Picking from a list is O(1) whatever its length — a 10-name list and a 100 000-name list cost the same.
Giving entries a weight makes that list's pick O(log n) instead (a search over cumulative weights). Still tiny, but an unweighted list is the cheapest — only add weight where you actually want skew.
Long format strings, deep nesting and many {tokens} add cost in proportion to the output produced.

Development

Everything runs in Docker — no local tooling beyond Docker is needed. Source is bind-mounted; build caches persist in the gocache volume.

docker compose run --rm test    # run tests
docker compose run --rm ci      # vet + format check + tests
docker compose run --rm cover   # tests with coverage
docker compose run --rm build   # compile the library
docker compose run --rm vet     # go vet
docker compose run --rm dev     # interactive shell

Commands that rewrite source keep your file ownership when run with --user:

docker compose run --rm --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" fmt   # gofmt -w .
docker compose run --rm --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" tidy  # go mod tidy

docker build . runs go vet and the tests, so it works as a CI gate too.

Layout

fakes.go      Fakes, New, options, seeding
template.go   Fake, the recursive renderer (choices, format strings, paths)
locale.go     locale loading + tag parsing
locales/      shipped locale data (JSON)

To add a category, drop a JSON file into a locale directory; to add a locale, add a directory named with its full tag.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

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