What is loom?

Loom is a command line tool that uses AI to help developers create API documentation. An API, or Application Programming Interface, is the formal specification for how software components talk to each other: the rulebook for what data you can send to a service and what you get back. Writing this documentation by hand is tedious, so Loom lets you describe your endpoints in plain language through a chat style interface and it generates structured JSON Schema files automatically. You work with Loom through an interactive terminal chat, powered by an AI model such as DeepSeek. You describe what an endpoint should do, and the tool produces properly formatted schema files. Reusable pieces, called entities, can be defined once and referenced across multiple endpoint schemas so you are not repeating yourself. Two companion services ship alongside the chat: a web based documentation viewer built with React for browsing and searching your generated API docs, and a mock server that returns realistic fake data matching your schema so frontend developers can build against the API before the real backend is ready. Both services can be started, stopped, and restarted directly from inside the chat session using slash commands like /mock and /view, or launched together with a single serve command. Configuration lives in one global JSON file on your machine rather than a project level .env file, covering the AI provider, model, API key, and the ports used by the viewer and mock server. Getting started requires Node.js version 18 or newer and an API key from an AI provider such as DeepSeek. Loom also checks npm on startup for newer versions and can upgrade itself after you confirm. The full README is longer than what was shown.