Short answer
What to know
For a read-only prototype, fetch a small versioned JSON collection directly from Payloads. The v1 files allow cross-origin requests, require no key and stay stable, so screenshots and demos do not change because a random-data service returned different records.
Load the fixture directly
Use users for profile or people interfaces, projects for cards and status displays, and tasks for tables, filters and completion states.
const response = await fetch("https://payloads.mochavi.com/v1/tasks.json");
const tasks = await response.json();
renderTaskTable(tasks);Why stable data helps a prototype
- Visual regression snapshots receive the same labels and lengths.
- A product demo does not acquire different random content.
- Bug reports can name the exact fixture URL.
- Designers and developers can share one input across tools.
- The same records are available as CSV, XML and other formats later.
Do not pretend it is a backend
Payloads only serves GET-able static assets. It has no pagination contract, mutations, login, server-side filtering or persistence. When the prototype needs those behaviours, move to a fake REST API or a local mock that reflects the intended application contract.