# oaspec
[](https://hex.pm/packages/oaspec)
[](https://hex.pm/packages/oaspec)
[](https://github.com/nao1215/oaspec/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
Generate usable Gleam code from OpenAPI 3.x specifications.
`oaspec` is aimed at practical, typed code generation rather than a feature checklist. It handles the OpenAPI cases that tend to break real projects, such as `$ref` resolution, `allOf`, `oneOf` and `anyOf`, `deepObject` query parameters, form bodies, multipart bodies, and multiple security schemes, while failing fast when a spec goes outside the supported subset.
- Generate client and server-side modules from a single spec
- Produce readable Gleam types, encoders, decoders, request types, and response types
- Handle real-world OpenAPI patterns: unions, nullable fields, `additionalProperties`, form bodies, multipart, and security
- Backed by 575 unit tests, ShellSpec CLI tests, 40 integration compile tests, and 179 test fixtures (including 94 OSS-derived edge-case specs)
## Why oaspec
- Built for Gleam: the generated code is shaped like normal Gleam modules, not generic templates awkwardly translated from another ecosystem.
- Focused on practical OpenAPI: coverage is strongest around the features teams actually ship with, not just toy Petstore specs.
- Strict by default: unsupported features are reported explicitly instead of being silently dropped into broken output.
## What you get
Given one OpenAPI spec, `oaspec` generates modules you can keep in your repository:
```text
gen/my_api/
types.gleam
decode.gleam
encode.gleam
request_types.gleam
response_types.gleam
middleware.gleam
guards.gleam (only if schemas have validation constraints)
handlers.gleam
router.gleam
gen_client/my_api/
types.gleam
decode.gleam
encode.gleam
request_types.gleam
response_types.gleam
middleware.gleam
guards.gleam (only if schemas have validation constraints)
client.gleam
```
Example generated code:
```gleam
/// A pet in the store
pub type Pet {
Pet(
id: Int,
name: String,
status: PetStatus,
tag: Option(String),
)
}
pub type PetStatus {
PetStatusAvailable
PetStatusPending
PetStatusSold
}
pub fn create_pet(config: ClientConfig, body: types.CreatePetRequest)
-> Result(response_types.CreatePetResponse, ClientError) {
// ...
}
pub fn list_pets(req: request_types.ListPetsRequest)
-> response_types.ListPetsResponse {
let _ = req
panic as "unimplemented: list_pets"
}
```
## Quickstart
### Install from GitHub release (Linux / macOS)
Requires Erlang/OTP 27+. The release binary is an Erlang escript that runs on any platform with Erlang installed.
```sh
curl -fSL -o oaspec https://github.com/nao1215/oaspec/releases/latest/download/oaspec
chmod +x oaspec
sudo mv oaspec /usr/local/bin/
```
> On Windows, download `oaspec` from the [latest release](https://github.com/nao1215/oaspec/releases/latest) and run it with `escript oaspec <command>`. Erlang/OTP 27+ must be on your `PATH`.
### Build from source (all platforms)
Requires Gleam 1.15+, Erlang/OTP 27+, and `rebar3`. Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
```sh
git clone https://github.com/nao1215/oaspec.git
cd oaspec
gleam deps download
gleam run -m gleescript
```
On Linux/macOS, move the binary into your PATH:
```sh
sudo mv oaspec /usr/local/bin/
```
On Windows, move `oaspec` to a directory on your `PATH` and run it with `escript oaspec <command>`.
### Generate code
1. Create a config file.
```sh
oaspec init
```
2. Edit `oaspec.yaml`.
```yaml
input: openapi.yaml
package: my_api
output:
dir: ./gen
```
3. Run the generator.
```sh
oaspec generate --config=oaspec.yaml
```
You can also run `gleam run -- generate --config=oaspec.yaml`.
## Configuration
Generated server code is written to `<dir>/<package>`. Generated client code is written to `<dir>_client/<package>`. The basename of each output directory must match `package` so imports such as `import my_api/types` resolve correctly.
| Field | Required | Default | Description |
|-------|----------|---------|-------------|
| `input` | yes | - | Path to an OpenAPI 3.x spec in YAML or JSON |
| `package` | no | `api` | Gleam module namespace prefix |
| `mode` | no | `both` | `server`, `client`, or `both` |
| `output.dir` | no | `./gen` | Base output directory |
| `output.server` | no | `<dir>/<package>` | Server output path |
| `output.client` | no | `<dir>_client/<package>` | Client output path |
### CLI commands
| Command | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| `oaspec generate` | Generate Gleam code from an OpenAPI specification |
| `oaspec validate` | Validate an OpenAPI specification without generating code |
| `oaspec init` | Create a default `oaspec.yaml` config file |
### CLI options for `generate`
| Flag | Default | Description |
|------|---------|-------------|
| `--config=<path>` | `./oaspec.yaml` | Path to config file |
| `--mode=<mode>` | `both` | `server`, `client`, or `both` (overrides config) |
| `--output=<path>` | - | Override output base directory |
| `--check` | `false` | Check that generated code matches existing files without writing |
| `--fail-on-warnings` | `false` | Treat warnings as errors |
### CLI options for `validate`
| Flag | Default | Description |
|------|---------|-------------|
| `--config=<path>` | `./oaspec.yaml` | Path to config file |
| `--mode=<mode>` | `both` | `server`, `client`, or `both` (overrides config) |
### Validate
Check a spec for unsupported patterns without generating code:
```sh
oaspec validate --config=oaspec.yaml
```
### CI integration
Use `--check` and `--fail-on-warnings` to verify generated code stays in sync:
```sh
# Fail if generated code would differ from what's committed
oaspec generate --config=oaspec.yaml --check --fail-on-warnings
```
## Best For
- Generating typed Gleam clients from an OpenAPI contract
- Keeping request and response types in sync with an external API spec
- Bootstrapping server-side types, handlers, and router support from the same source spec
- Catching unsupported spec features early in CI instead of after code generation
## OpenAPI Support
`oaspec` supports OpenAPI 3.0.x and a practical subset of OpenAPI 3.1 in YAML or JSON.
Coverage is strongest in these areas:
- Schemas: component schemas, primitive aliases, enums, nullable fields, arrays, objects, `allOf`, `oneOf`, `anyOf`, and typed `additionalProperties`
- References: local `$ref` resolution for schemas, parameters, request bodies, responses, and path items, including circular-reference detection
- Parameters: path, query, header, and cookie parameters, including array serialization and `style: deepObject`
- Request bodies: `application/json`, `application/x-www-form-urlencoded`, and `multipart/form-data`
- Responses: typed status-code variants, `$ref` responses, `default` responses, and text or binary passthrough cases
- Security: `apiKey` (header, query, cookie), HTTP auth (bearer, basic, digest), OAuth2, and OpenID Connect. For OAuth2 and OpenID Connect, the generated client attaches a bearer token to requests; token acquisition, refresh, and flow execution are outside the generated code.
- Generation safety: name collision handling, keyword escaping, validation guards, and capability errors with clear failure modes
<!-- BEGIN GENERATED:BOUNDARIES -->
## Current Boundaries
These boundaries are generated from the capability registry in `src/oaspec/capability.gleam`.
These are the most important limitations today:
- The following keywords are detected and rejected: `$defs`, `prefixItems`, `if/then/else`, `dependentSchemas`, `not`, `unevaluatedProperties`, `unevaluatedItems`, `contentEncoding`, `contentMediaType`, `contentSchema`, `mutualTLS`
- `xml` annotations are not handled by the parser
- Some fields are parsed and preserved but not yet used by codegen: webhooks, externalDocs, tags, examples, links, operation servers, path servers, response headers, encoding
- The following are normalized to supported equivalents:
- `const`: String const normalized to single-value enum
- `type: [T, null]`: Normalized to nullable
- `type: [T1, T2]`: Normalized to oneOf
<!-- END GENERATED:BOUNDARIES -->
## Mode-Specific Support
`oaspec` generates different files depending on the `--mode` flag. Some features have mode-specific restrictions enforced at validation time.
### Generated files
| File | server | client |
|------|--------|--------|
| `types.gleam` | yes | yes |
| `decode.gleam` | yes | yes |
| `encode.gleam` | yes | yes |
| `request_types.gleam` | yes | yes |
| `response_types.gleam` | yes | yes |
| `middleware.gleam` | yes | yes |
| `guards.gleam` | yes | yes |
| `handlers.gleam` | yes | - |
| `router.gleam` | yes | - |
| `client.gleam` | - | yes |
### Feature restrictions by mode
| Feature | server | client | Notes |
|---------|--------|--------|-------|
| JSON request/response bodies | yes | yes | |
| Path / query / header / cookie parameters | yes | yes | |
| `style: deepObject` parameters | restricted | yes | Server: only primitive scalars and primitive arrays |
| Array query parameters | restricted | yes | Server: only inline primitive item schemas |
| `application/x-www-form-urlencoded` | restricted | yes | Server: must be sole content type; only primitive fields and shallow nested objects |
| `multipart/form-data` | restricted | yes | Server: must be sole content type; only primitive scalar fields |
| Security (apiKey, HTTP, OAuth2, OpenID Connect) | yes | yes | Client attaches credentials via config; OAuth2/OpenID Connect: bearer token only |
## Library API
`oaspec` can be used as a Gleam library, not just a CLI tool. The generation pipeline is pure (no IO) and split into composable steps.
### Pipeline overview
```text
parse → normalize → resolve → capability check → hoist → dedup → validate → codegen
```
The `oaspec/generate` module wraps this pipeline into two entry points:
- `generate.generate(spec, config)` — run the full pipeline and return generated files
- `generate.validate_only(spec, config)` — run validation without code generation
### Example: generate files from a parsed spec
```gleam
import oaspec/config
import oaspec/generate
import oaspec/openapi/parser
let assert Ok(spec) = parser.parse_file("openapi.yaml")
let cfg = config.Config(
input: "openapi.yaml",
output_server: "./gen/my_api",
output_client: "./gen_client/my_api",
package: "my_api",
mode: config.Both,
)
case generate.generate(spec, cfg) {
Ok(summary) -> {
// summary.files: List(GeneratedFile) — path and content for each file
// summary.warnings: List(Diagnostic) — non-blocking warnings
// summary.spec_title: String
}
Error(generate.ValidationErrors(errors:)) -> {
// errors: List(Diagnostic) — blocking validation errors
}
}
```
### Example: validate without generating
```gleam
case generate.validate_only(spec, cfg) {
Ok(summary) -> // spec is valid; summary.warnings may be non-empty
Error(generate.ValidationErrors(errors:)) -> // spec has errors
}
```
### Key modules
| Module | Purpose |
|--------|---------|
| `oaspec/openapi/parser` | Parse YAML/JSON spec into `OpenApiSpec(Unresolved)` |
| `oaspec/config` | Load config from YAML or construct programmatically |
| `oaspec/generate` | Pure generation pipeline (parse → codegen) |
| `oaspec/codegen/writer` | Write generated files to disk |
| `oaspec/openapi/diagnostic` | Structured warnings and errors |
## Development
This project uses [mise](https://mise.jdx.dev/) for tool versions and [just](https://just.systems/) as a task runner.
```sh
mise install
just check
just shellspec
just integration
```
Test structure:
| Command | Tool | What it tests |
|---------|------|---------------|
| `just test` | gleeunit | Parser, validator, naming, config, collision detection |
| `just shellspec` | ShellSpec | CLI behaviour, file generation, content, unsupported feature detection |
| `just integration` | gleeunit | Generated code compiles and the generated modules work together |
## License
[MIT](LICENSE)