carvis

a maker of CSV files

Carvis is a command-line-tool that can make massive amounts of realistic, fake data as CSV files. These files map effortlessly to Mixpanel events, or user profiles.

The primarily motivation for this utility is to feed reverse-ETLs (like Census or Hightouch) which demonstrate how tabular data can be mapped to event (or people) data. 🥳

Carvis can also make dimension tables for use in Mixpanel.

usage

you don't need to install carvis to use it. assuming you have node.js installed (v14 or greater) you can simply run:

npx carvis

and watch carvis generate some test data.

you can specify custom data with options:

npx carvis --[option] [value]

for example, if we wanted 50 rows of data, we can run

npx carvis --rows 50

To see a list of examples, run:

npx carvis --help

see examples and API for more info

examples

• generate some fake data as a CSV file

npx carvis

• generate some fake data as a JSON file

npx carvis --json

• generate some fake data in the mixpanel format

npx carvis --mixpanel

• generate 10,000 rows of event data

npx carvis --rows 10000

• generate 10,000 rows of event data over the last 90 days

npx carvis --rows 10000 --days 90

• generate event data with column eventName with values appOpen, appInstall, or pageView and column userType with values free, trial, or paid:

npx carvis --cols eventName:appOpen,appInstall,pageView userType:free,trial,paid

• generate people data with column npsScore with values 1-10 but mostly 6's:

npx carvis --people --cols npsScore:1,2,3,4,5,6,6,6,7,8,9,10

• generate TWO CSV files with the same users; one with event data where eventName has values appOpen, appInstall, or pageView and one with people data where column Satisfaction Score has values 1-5.

guid values will match across both files (note the seed used for both is the same)

npx carvis --cols eventName:appOpen,appInstall,pageView --seed "are you satisfied?"

npx carvis --people --cols "Satisfaction Score":1,2,3,4,5 --seed "are you satisfied?"

• generate a dimension table with 500 rows with a column hashtag with values foo, bar, and baz:

npx carvis --rows 500 --dimTable --cols hashTag:foo,bar,baz

API

Carvis lets you control the data that gets built in the CSV file. The general usage is:

npm run carvis --{{option}} {{value}}

here are the available options; all are optional and can be used in any order:

option	Alias	Purpose
--cols	-c	define the columns AND values for your CSV file. the format is columnName:value1,value2,value3 ... you can use this to create multiple columns
--rows	-r	the number of rows/records to generate (default: 1000)
--days	-d	the number of days (since today) to consider (default: 5)
--seed	-s	any alphanumeric phrase which controls how distinct_id is generated; use the same seed to get the same users across multiple files
--people	-p	generate people profiles (including $name, $email, $avatar, etc...)
--dimTable	-t	generate a dimension table (with unit_id as an integer for the first column)
--json	-j	generate NDJSON format instead of CSV
--mixpanel	-m	generate mixpanel data in NDJSON format
--silent	-s	don't log stuff; pass filename to stdout

note: the dimTable and people options are mutually exclusive. the mixpanel and json options are also mutually exclusive.

see examples for some recipes

why?

because sometimes you need real fake data.