**FastAPI** provides the same `starlette.staticfiles` as `fastapi.staticfiles` just as a convenience for you, the developer. But it actually comes directly from Starlette.

### What is "Mounting"

"Mounting" means adding a complete "independent" application in a specific path, that then takes care of handling all the sub-paths.

But then, the project's focus shifted.

It was no longer an API web framework, as the creator needed to focus on Starlette.

Nevertheless, you can still do it in **FastAPI**, using one of the internal tools from Starlette.

And the docs would still work, although not adding any documentation telling that the parameter should contain a path.

### Path convertor

Using an option directly from Starlette you can declare a *path parameter* containing a *path* using a URL like:

```

    <div class="termy">

    ```console
    $ pip install "uvicorn[standard]"

    ---> 100%
    ```

    </div>

    !!! tip
        By adding the `standard`, Uvicorn will install and use some recommended extra dependencies.

        That including `uvloop`, the high-performance drop-in replacement for `asyncio`, that provides the big concurrency performance boost.

    Check the docs about <a href="https://help.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/about-pull-request-reviews" class="external-link" target="_blank">adding a pull request review</a> to approve it or request changes.

You can also use `response_model=None` to disable creating a response model for that *path operation*, you might need to do it if you are adding type annotations for things that are not valid Pydantic fields, you will see an example of that in one of the sections below.

## Return the same input data

## Mounting a **FastAPI** application

"Mounting" means adding a completely "independent" application in a specific path, that then takes care of handling everything under that path, with the _path operations_ declared in that sub-application.

### Top-level application

```Python
{**note.dict()}
```

`**note.dict()` "unpacks" the key value pairs directly, so, `{**note.dict()}` would be, more or less, a copy of `note.dict()`.

And then, we extend that copy `dict`, adding another key-value pair: `"id": last_record_id`:

```Python
{**note.dict(), "id": last_record_id}
```

So, the final result returned would be something like:

```Python
{
    "id": 1,

* Path `prefix`: `/items`.
* `tags`: (just one tag: `items`).
* Extra `responses`.
* `dependencies`: they all need that `X-Token` dependency we created.

So, instead of adding all that to each *path operation*, we can add it to the `APIRouter`.

```Python hl_lines="5-10  16  21" title="app/routers/items.py"
{!../../../docs_src/bigger_applications/app/routers/items.py!}
```

That is not the same as declaring default values like would be with:

```Python
    first_name="john", last_name="doe"
```

It's a different thing.

We are using colons (`:`), not equals (`=`).

And adding type hints normally doesn't change what happens from what would happen without them.

But now, imagine you are again in the middle of creating that function, but with type hints.