Swift OpenAPI Generator

Generate Swift client and server code from an OpenAPI document.

Overview

OpenAPI is a specification for documenting HTTP services. An OpenAPI document is written in either YAML or JSON, and can be read by tools to help automate workflows, such as generating the necessary code to send and receive HTTP requests.

Swift OpenAPI Generator is a Swift package plugin that can generate the ceremony code required to make API calls, or implement API servers.

The code is generated at build-time, so it's always in sync with the OpenAPI document and doesn't need to be committed to your source repository.

Features

• Works with OpenAPI Specification versions 3.0 and 3.1.
• Streaming request and response bodies enabling use cases such as JSON event streams, and large payloads without buffering.
• Support for JSON, multipart, URL-encoded form, base64, plain text, and raw bytes, represented as value types with type-safe properties.
• Client, server, and middleware abstractions, decoupling the generated code from the HTTP client library and web framework.

To see these features in action, check out the list of example projects.

Usage

Swift OpenAPI Generator can be used to generate API clients and server stubs.

Below you can see some example code, or you can follow one of the step-by-step tutorials.

Using a generated API client

The generated Client type provides a method for each HTTP operation defined in the OpenAPI document¹ and can be used with any HTTP library that provides an implementation of ClientTransport.

import OpenAPIURLSession
import Foundation

let client = Client(
    serverURL: URL(string: "http://localhost:8080/api")!,
    transport: URLSessionTransport()
)
let response = try await client.getGreeting()
print(try response.ok.body.json.message)

Using generated API server stubs

To implement a server, define a type that conforms to the generated APIProtocol, providing a method for each HTTP operation defined in the OpenAPI document¹.

The server can be used with any web framework that provides an implementation of ServerTransport, which allows you to register your API handlers with the HTTP server.

import OpenAPIRuntime
import OpenAPIVapor
import Vapor

struct Handler: APIProtocol {
    func getGreeting(_ input: Operations.GetGreeting.Input) async throws -> Operations.GetGreeting.Output {
        let name = input.query.name ?? "Stranger"
        return .ok(.init(body: .json(.init(message: "Hello, \(name)!"))))
    }
}

@main struct HelloWorldVaporServer {
    static func main() async throws {
        let app = Vapor.Application()
        let transport = VaporTransport(routesBuilder: app)
        let handler = Handler()
        try handler.registerHandlers(on: transport, serverURL: URL(string: "/api")!)
        try await app.execute()
    }
}

Package ecosystem

The Swift OpenAPI Generator project is split across multiple repositories to enable extensibility and minimize dependencies in your project.

Repository	Description
apple/swift-openapi-generator	Swift package plugin and CLI
apple/swift-openapi-runtime	Runtime library used by the generated code
apple/swift-openapi-urlsession	ClientTransport using URLSession
swift-server/swift-openapi-async-http-client	ClientTransport using AsyncHTTPClient
swift-server/swift-openapi-vapor	ServerTransport using Vapor
swift-server/swift-openapi-hummingbird	ServerTransport using Hummingbird
swift-server/swift-openapi-lambda	ServerTransport using AWS Lambda

Requirements and supported features

Generator versions	Supported OpenAPI versions	Minimum Swift version
1.0.0 ... main	3.0, 3.1	5.9

See also Supported OpenAPI features.

Supported platforms and minimum versions

The generator is used during development and is supported on macOS and Linux.

The generated code, runtime library, and transports are supported on more platforms, listed below.

Component	macOS	Linux	iOS	tvOS	watchOS	visionOS
Generator plugin and CLI	✅ 10.15+	✅	✖️	✖️	✖️	✖️
Generated code and runtime library	✅ 10.15+	✅	✅ 13+	✅ 13+	✅ 6+	✅ 1+

Note

When using Visual Studio Code or other editors that rely on SourceKit-LSP, the editor may not correctly recognize generated code within the same module. As a workaround, consider creating a separate target for code generation and then importing it into your main module. For more details, see the discussion in swiftlang/sourcekit-lsp#665.

Documentation and example projects

To get started, check out the documentation, which contains step-by-step tutorials.

You can also experiment with example projects that use Swift OpenAPI Generator and integrate with other packages in the ecosystem.

Or if you prefer to watch a video, check out Meet Swift OpenAPI Generator from WWDC23.

Footnotes

1. Example OpenAPI document (click to expand)

   openapi: '3.1.0'
   info:
     title: GreetingService
     version: 1.0.0
   servers:
     - url: https://example.com/api
       description: Example service deployment.
   paths:
     /greet:
       get:
         operationId: getGreeting
         parameters:
           - name: name
             required: false
             in: query
             description: The name used in the returned greeting.
             schema:
               type: string
         responses:
           '200':
             description: A success response with a greeting.
             content:
               application/json:
                 schema:
                   $ref: '#/components/schemas/Greeting'
   components:
     schemas:
       Greeting:
         type: object
         description: A value with the greeting contents.
         properties:
           message:
             type: string
             description: The string representation of the greeting.
         required:
           - message
   

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