tonic-rest-openapi
OpenAPI 3.1 spec generation and patching from protobuf descriptors for Tonic gRPC services.
Part of the tonic-rest ecosystem — define your API once in proto files, get gRPC, REST, and OpenAPI 3.1.
Reads compiled protobuf FileDescriptorSet bytes and a gnostic-generated OpenAPI YAML spec,
then applies a configurable pipeline of transforms to produce a clean OpenAPI 3.1 spec that
matches the runtime REST behavior.
Key Features
- Proto as single source of truth — OpenAPI spec derived from the same proto files that drive gRPC and REST
- 12-phase transform pipeline — produces a clean OpenAPI 3.1 spec with security, validation constraints, and SSE annotations
- Google error model — injects structured error schemas matching runtime
RestErrorJSON responses - Security built-in — auto-generates Bearer JWT security scheme with public endpoint overrides
- Library + CLI — use programmatically in your build pipeline or as a standalone CI tool
Pipeline
The 12-phase transform pipeline:
| Phase | Transform |
|---|---|
| 1 | Structural (3.0 → 3.1 upgrade, server/info injection) |
| 2 | SSE streaming annotations + Last-Event-ID header |
| 3 | Response fixes (empty→204, plain text, redirects, error schemas, 201 Created) |
| 4 | Enum value rewrites (strip UNSPECIFIED, normalize values) |
| 5 | Unimplemented (501) and deprecated operation markers |
| 6 | Security (Bearer JWT, public endpoint overrides) |
| 7 | Cleanup (tags, empty bodies, unused schemas, format: enum removal) |
| 8 | UUID wrapper flattening (path templates, $ref inlining, query params) |
| 9 | Validation constraints + field access annotation + Duration rewriting |
| 10 | Path field stripping + path parameter enrichment |
| 11 | Request body inlining + orphan removal |
| 12 | CRLF → LF normalization |
Each phase can be individually enabled/disabled via PatchConfig or ProjectConfig.
Usage
As a Library
use ;
// From a config file
let project = load?;
let metadata = discover?;
let config = new.with_project_config;
let patched_yaml = patch?;
Or configure programmatically:
let config = new
.unimplemented_methods
.public_methods
.bearer_description
.error_schema_ref;
let patched_yaml = patch?;
As a CLI
# Full pipeline: lint → generate → patch
# Standalone patch
# Discover proto metadata
Enable the cli feature for the binary:
[]
= { = "0.1", = ["cli"] }
Feature Flags
| Feature | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
cli |
off | CLI binary with generate, patch, discover, inject-version subcommands (adds clap, toml, anyhow) |
Project Config File
# api/openapi/config.yaml
error_schema_ref: "#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse"
unimplemented_methods:
- SetupMfa
public_methods:
- Login
- SignUp
plain_text_endpoints:
- path: /health/live
example: "OK"
metrics_path: /metrics
readiness_path: /health/ready
transforms:
upgrade_to_3_1: true
annotate_sse: true
inject_validation: true
add_security: true
For a complete end-to-end example with proto files, build.rs, REST handlers, and OpenAPI generation,
see auth-service-rs.
Companion Crates
| Crate | Purpose | Cargo section |
|---|---|---|
| tonic-rest-core | Shared descriptor types | internal |
| tonic-rest | Runtime types | [dependencies] |
| tonic-rest-build | Build-time codegen | [build-dependencies] |
| tonic-rest-openapi (this) | OpenAPI 3.1 generation | CLI / CI |
Dependencies
This crate uses serde_yaml_ng for YAML parsing
and serialization. serde_yaml_ng is a maintained fork of the archived serde_yaml crate.
While it is the best available option today, be aware that its ecosystem adoption is narrower
than serde_json. If a more widely-adopted YAML serde library emerges in the future,
migration may be warranted.
Compatibility
| tonic-rest-openapi | tonic-rest-core | prost | MSRV |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1.x | 0.1 | 0.14 | 1.82 |
License
MIT OR Apache-2.0