the name

A false messenger.

laqi joins two Quechua words: llulla, false, and chasqui, messenger. A false messenger — a server that answers with information that is simulated on purpose.

The chasquis were the relay runners of the Inca road system. They carried knotted-cord quipus and spoken messages on foot between waystations across the Andes, handing each message to the next runner rather than carrying it the whole way themselves. A message moved faster than any single person could move.

That is close to what this tool does for a frontend team. The real message — the response from the real backend — is not ready yet. laqi carries a stand-in of the agreed shape, so the work does not stop waiting for the runner who has not arrived.

Quechua is spoken by millions of people across Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador today. It is not a dead language borrowed for a logo.

In English it also happens to sound like lucky, which was not the plan and is not the meaning.