Flat fixtures force the UI to join client-side. Starter+ relationships let you declare foreign keys between collections. Request ?populate=true to nest related documents in list and get-by-id responses.
Generate mock data after linking so IDs resolve consistently for demos.
Setup tips
Create the parent collection first (e.g. customers), then the child (orders) with a relation field. Seed parents before children so generated foreign keys land on real ids.
Without populate, clients still receive the raw id — useful when you want to match a production API that does not expand by default.
Performance note
Populate is for mock realism, not load testing. Keep list limits reasonable in demos; deep graphs belong in a handful of detail views rather than every list row.
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