Mock 還是運行整套技術堆疊？44 種職位如何看 MSW 與 Flisk

Every team hits the same wall sooner or later. Your frontend needs an API that isn't ready. Your service needs three other services, a database and a queue. Your test needs the payment provider to fail on purpose.

There are two answers:

1. Mock it. Pretend the other side exists. Mock Service Worker (MSW) is the best-known way: it catches requests in the browser or in Node and answers with what you tell it to.
2. Run it. Start the real services on your laptop and talk to them for real: Docker Compose, Tilt, or a tool that wires them up for you (I build one, Flisk; more on that below).

I wanted a less hand-wavy answer than "it depends", so I put both on the same page:

👉 roadmap.flisk.si/roles/?compare=msw,flisk

How the scores work

roadmap.flisk.si is a community-edited map of 372 developer tools. Nobody places a dot by hand. Each tool gets 10 points per checklist item it meets, on two axes:

• Easy to use? One command starts it, little setup, see changes fast, clear errors, a screen to look at, working in 10 minutes, Mac/Linux/Windows, no account needed, light and fast, AI can drive it.
• Made for big, real systems? Works with containers, handles many services, services talk to each other, real databases and queues, same images as live servers, speaks Kubernetes, works with the cloud, real config and secrets, logs/metrics/traces, works for big teams.

Every check is in a public YAML file. Think a dot is wrong? Open a PR with a source.

The numbers

The 0 for MSW is not an insult. It is the point. MSW doesn't start containers, doesn't run services, doesn't touch a database. It is a scalpel: it replaces exactly one thing, the network answer, and nothing else. That is why it is fast, light and works with no account and no Docker.

Flisk scores higher on ease of use (one command, little setup, clear errors, a UI, an MCP server) and gets halfway up the other axis (real containers, many services, real databases, services talking to each other). It misses Kubernetes, the cloud and production images, because it is local only by design.

And Flisk is in Assess, not Adopt. Its first release was in October 2026. The ring rule says anything under a year old is "watch it", and the site applies that rule to its own publisher too.

What the roles say

This is the part I found most useful. The site has 44 job roles, each with the tools that job really uses: must have, every day, good to know.

MSW is a must-have for:

• Frontend Engineer
• Mobile Engineer

…and an every-day tool for:

• Full-stack Engineer
• QA / Test Automation Engineer
• Contract / Integration Test Engineer
• Integration Engineer

Flisk shows up in 20 roles, from Backend and Platform Engineer to Forward Deployed Engineer, Tech Lead and Open-source Maintainer. But in every one of them it is only "good to know". Never a must-have.

That is an honest picture of a new tool: broad fit, no one's job depends on it yet. MSW has earned its must-have spots.

So when do you mock, and when do you run?

From the checklists and the roles, my rule of thumb:

Mock it (MSW) when:

• You're testing UI states: loading, empty, error, slow, 500, a weird edge case the real API rarely returns.
• The API contract is stable, or written down (OpenAPI), and you trust it.
• You want tests that run in milliseconds in CI with nothing else installed.
• The real backend doesn't exist yet.

Run it when:

• The bug lives between services: auth, retries, timeouts, a queue that delivers twice.
• You need real data: migrations, indexes, a Postgres that behaves like Postgres.
• You're onboarding someone and "clone and it works" matters more than speed.
• Your mocks have drifted from reality and nobody noticed. (This is the classic MSW failure: green tests, broken app.)

Usually: both. MSW in unit and component tests, the real stack for integration and for day-to-day development. They are not rivals. They answer different questions, which is exactly what the 0 vs 50 on the "big, real systems" axis is telling you.

Try it on your own stack

• Compare any tools: type msw vs flisk, or tilt vs skaffold vs garden, into Ask. It answers from the data, no AI call, and tells you what it can't answer (pricing, benchmarks).
• Find your role: rate the tools you know from 0 to 3 in Portfolio. It suggests your best-fit role and draws your skill shape. Your ratings stay in your link; nothing is sent anywhere.
• Check the dead stuff: Findings lists tools that are archived or haven't shipped in 18 months, from live GitHub data.

Disclosure

I build Flisk, and Flisk publishes roadmap.flisk.si. That is exactly why the site scores Flisk with the same checklist as everyone else, gives it no special color or size, puts it in Assess, and leaves it off Journeys levels where it doesn't do the job yet.

The first dataset was written in October 2026 with AI-assisted research, so it will have mistakes. If MSW deserves more than 40 for ease of use (I suspect it does: "little setup" and "see changes fast" are arguable), send a PR and the dot moves.

Which camp is your team in: mock everything, run everything, or both?