Ogen
OpenAPI v3 code generator for go
- [Getting started](https://ogen.dev/docs/intro) - [Sample project](https://github.com/ogen-go/example) - [Security policy](https://github.com/ogen-go/ogen/blob/-/SECURITY.md) - [Telegram group `@ogen_dev`](https://t.me/ogen_dev) The project is written primarily in Go, distributed under the Apache License 2.0 license, first published in 2021. It has gained significant community traction with 2,093 stars and 174 forks on GitHub. Key topics include: api, code-generator, codegen, go, golang.
ogen

OpenAPI v3 Code Generator for Go.
Install
consolego install -v github.com/ogen-go/ogen/cmd/ogen@latest
Usage
go//go:generate go run github.com/ogen-go/ogen/cmd/ogen --target target/dir -package api --clean schema.json
or using container:
shelldocker run --rm \ --volume ".:/workspace" \ ghcr.io/ogen-go/ogen:latest --target workspace/petstore --clean workspace/petstore.yml
Features
- No reflection or
interface{}- The json encoding is code-generated, optimized and uses go-faster/jx for speed and overcoming
encoding/jsonlimitations - Validation is code-generated according to spec
- The json encoding is code-generated, optimized and uses go-faster/jx for speed and overcoming
- Code-generated static radix router
- No more boilerplate
- Structures are generated from OpenAPI v3 specification
- Arguments, headers, url queries are parsed according to specification into structures
- String formats like
uuid,date,date-time,uriare represented by go types directly
- Statically typed client and server
- Convenient support for optional, nullable and optional nullable fields
- No more pointers
- Generated Optional[T], Nullable[T] or OptionalNullable[T] wrappers with helpers
- Special case for array handling with
nilsemantics relevant to specification- When array is optional,
nildenotes absence of value - When nullable,
nildenotes that value isnil - When required,
nilcurrently the same as[], but is actually invalid - If both nullable and required, wrapper will be generated (TODO)
- When array is optional,
- Support for untyped parameters (any)
- Parameters with no
typespecified in schema are represented as Goany - Decoded as strings from URI (path, query, header, cookie)
- Client encoding uses
fmt.Sprintfor flexible value conversion - Useful for legacy APIs or dynamic parameter types
- Parameters with no
- Generated sum types for oneOf
- Primitive types (
string,number) are detected by type - Discriminator field is used if defined in schema
- Type is inferred by unique fields if possible
- Field name discrimination: variants with different field names
- Field type discrimination: variants with same field names but different types (e.g.,
{id: string}vs{id: integer}) - Field value discrimination: variants with same field names and types but different enum values
- Primitive types (
- Extra Go struct field tags in the generated types
- OpenTelemetry tracing and metrics
- Server-Sent Events (SSE) support
Example generated structure from schema:
go// Pet describes #/components/schemas/Pet. type Pet struct { Birthday time.Time `json:"birthday"` Friends []Pet `json:"friends"` ID int64 `json:"id"` IP net.IP `json:"ip"` IPV4 net.IP `json:"ip_v4"` IPV6 net.IP `json:"ip_v6"` Kind PetKind `json:"kind"` Name string `json:"name"` Next OptData `json:"next"` Nickname NilString `json:"nickname"` NullStr OptNilString `json:"nullStr"` Rate time.Duration `json:"rate"` Tag OptUUID `json:"tag"` TestArray1 [][]string `json:"testArray1"` TestDate OptTime `json:"testDate"` TestDateTime OptTime `json:"testDateTime"` TestDuration OptDuration `json:"testDuration"` TestFloat1 OptFloat64 `json:"testFloat1"` TestInteger1 OptInt `json:"testInteger1"` TestTime OptTime `json:"testTime"` Type OptPetType `json:"type"` URI url.URL `json:"uri"` UniqueID uuid.UUID `json:"unique_id"` }
Example generated server interface:
go// Server handles operations described by OpenAPI v3 specification. type Server interface { PetGetByName(ctx context.Context, params PetGetByNameParams) (Pet, error) // ... }
Example generated client method signature:
gotype PetGetByNameParams struct { Name string } // GET /pet/{name} func (c *Client) PetGetByName(ctx context.Context, params PetGetByNameParams) (res Pet, err error)
Generics
Instead of using pointers, ogen generates generic wrappers.
For example, OptNilString is string that is optional (no value) and can be null.
go// OptNilString is optional nullable string. type OptNilString struct { Value string Set bool Null bool }
Multiple convenience helper methods and functions are generated, some of them:
gofunc (OptNilString) Get() (v string, ok bool) func (OptNilString) IsNull() bool func (OptNilString) IsSet() bool func (OptNilString) IsEmpty() bool func NewOptNilString(v string) OptNilString
Recursive types
If ogen encounters recursive types that can't be expressed in go, pointers are used as fallback.
Sum types
For oneOf sum-types are generated. ID that is one of [string, integer] will be represented like that:
gotype ID struct { Type IDType String string Int int } // Also, some helpers: func NewStringID(v string) ID func NewIntID(v int) ID
Discriminator Inference
ogen automatically infers how to discriminate between oneOf variants using several strategies:
1. Type-based discrimination (for primitive types)
Variants with different JSON types are discriminated by checking the JSON type at runtime:
json{ "oneOf": [ {"type": "string"}, {"type": "integer"} ] }
2. Explicit discriminator (when discriminator field is specified)
When a discriminator field is defined in the schema, ogen uses it directly:
json{ "oneOf": [...], "discriminator": { "propertyName": "type", "mapping": {"user": "#/components/schemas/User", ...} } }
3. Field-based discrimination (automatic inference from unique fields)
ogen analyzes the fields in each variant to find discriminating characteristics:
- Field name discrimination: Variants have different field names
json{ "oneOf": [ {"type": "object", "required": ["userId"], "properties": {"userId": {"type": "string"}}}, {"type": "object", "required": ["orderId"], "properties": {"orderId": {"type": "string"}}} ] }
- Field type discrimination: Variants have fields with the same name but different types
json{ "oneOf": [ { "type": "object", "required": ["id", "value"], "properties": { "id": {"type": "string"}, "value": {"type": "string"} } }, { "type": "object", "required": ["id", "value"], "properties": { "id": {"type": "integer"}, "value": {"type": "number"} } } ] }
In this case, ogen checks the JSON type of the id field at runtime to determine which variant to decode.
- Field value discrimination: Variants have fields with the same name and type but different enum values
json{ "oneOf": [ { "type": "object", "required": ["status"], "properties": { "status": {"type": "string", "enum": ["active", "pending"]} } }, { "type": "object", "required": ["status"], "properties": { "status": {"type": "string", "enum": ["inactive", "deleted"]} } } ] }
In this case, ogen checks the actual string value of the status field at runtime and matches it against each variant's enum values. The enum values must be disjoint (non-overlapping) for this to work. If enum values overlap, ogen will report an error and suggest using an explicit discriminator.
Const values
ogen supports the JSON Schema const keyword, which specifies that a field must have a fixed value (introduced in JSON Schema draft 6 and supported in OpenAPI 3.0+). When a field has a const value, it is encoded directly in the generated JSON encoder without requiring the struct field to be set.
Example schema with const values
yamlcomponents: schemas: ErrorResponse: type: object properties: code: type: integer const: 400 status: type: string const: "error" message: type: string
Generated code
The generated struct includes the field, but the encoder hardcodes the const value:
gotype ErrorResponse struct { Code int64 `json:"code"` // const: 400 Status string `json:"status"` // const: "error" Message string `json:"message"` } func (s *ErrorResponse) encodeFields(e *jx.Encoder) { { e.FieldStart("code") e.Int64(400) // Const value encoded directly } { e.FieldStart("status") e.Str("error") // Const value encoded directly } { e.FieldStart("message") e.Str(s.Message) // Regular field } }
Benefits
- Simplified initialization: You don't need to set const fields when creating struct instances
- Type safety: Const values are validated at code generation time
- Performance: Const values are encoded directly without runtime lookups
- Works with allOf: Const values are preserved when merging schemas with
allOf
Supported const value types
- Primitives:
integer,number,string,boolean - Special values:
null, empty strings (""), zero values (0,false) - Complex types:
object,array(when specified in schema)
Extension properties
OpenAPI enables Specification Extensions,
which are implemented as patterned fields that are always prefixed by x-.
Server name
Optionally, server name can be specified by x-ogen-server-name, for example:
json{ "openapi": "3.0.3", "servers": [ { "x-ogen-server-name": "production", "url": "https://{region}.example.com/{val}/v1", }, { "x-ogen-server-name": "prefix", "url": "/{val}/v1", }, { "x-ogen-server-name": "const", "url": "https://cdn.example.com/v1" } ], (...)
Custom type name
Optionally, type name can be specified by x-ogen-name, for example:
json{ "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema#", "type": "object", "x-ogen-name": "Name", "properties": { "foobar": { "$ref": "#/$defs/FooBar" } }, "$defs": { "FooBar": { "x-ogen-name": "FooBar", "type": "object", "properties": { "foo": { "type": "string" } } } } }
Custom field name
Optionally, type name can be specified by x-ogen-properties, for example:
yamlcomponents: schemas: Node: type: object properties: parent: $ref: "#/components/schemas/Node" child: $ref: "#/components/schemas/Node" x-ogen-properties: parent: name: "Prev" child: name: "Next"
The generated source code looks like:
go// Ref: #/components/schemas/Node type Node struct { Prev *Node `json:"parent"` Next *Node `json:"child"` }
Extra struct field tags
Optionally, additional Go struct field tags can be specified by x-oapi-codegen-extra-tags, for example:
yamlcomponents: schemas: Pet: type: object required: - id properties: id: type: integer format: int64 x-oapi-codegen-extra-tags: gorm: primaryKey valid: customIdValidator
The generated source code looks like:
go// Ref: #/components/schemas/Pet type Pet struct { ID int64 `gorm:"primaryKey" valid:"customNameValidator" json:"id"` }
Streaming JSON encoding
By default, ogen loads the entire JSON body into memory before decoding it.
Optionally, streaming JSON encoding can be enabled by x-ogen-json-streaming, for example:
yamlrequestBody: required: true content: application/json: x-ogen-json-streaming: true schema: type: array items: type: number
Custom validation
Optionally, custom validation can be specified by x-ogen-validate, for example:
yamlcomponents: schemas: Product: type: object properties: name: type: string x-ogen-validate: minWords: 2 tags: type: array items: type: string x-ogen-validate: uniqueItems: true metadata: type: object additionalProperties: true x-ogen-validate: fieldCount: min: 1 max: 10
Custom validators must be registered before validation is performed:
goimport "github.com/ogen-go/ogen/validate" // Register validators validate.RegisterValidator("minWords", func(value any, params any) error { // ... validate minimum word count }) validate.RegisterValidator("uniqueItems", func(value any, params any) error { // ... validate array has no duplicate items }) validate.RegisterValidator("fieldCount", func(value any, params any) error { // ... validate object field count within min/max range })
Operation groups
Optionally, operations can be grouped so a handler interface will be generated for each group of operations.
This is useful for organizing operations for large APIs.
The group for operations on a path or individual operations can be specified by x-ogen-operation-group, for example:
yamlpaths: /images: x-ogen-operation-group: Images get: operationId: listImages ... /images/{imageID}: x-ogen-operation-group: Images get: operationId: getImageByID ... /users: x-ogen-operation-group: Users get: operationId: listUsers ...
The generated handler interfaces look like this:
go// x-ogen-operation-group: Images type ImagesHandler interface { ListImages(ctx context.Context, req *ListImagesRequest) (*ListImagesResponse, error) GetImageByID(ctx context.Context, req *GetImagesByIDRequest) (*GetImagesByIDResponse, error) } // x-ogen-operation-group: Users type UsersHandler interface { ListUsers(ctx context.Context, req *ListUsersRequest) (*ListUsersResponse, error) } type Handler interface { ImagesHandler UsersHandler // All un-grouped operations will be on this interface }
JSON
Code generation provides very efficient and flexible encoding and decoding of json:
go// Decode decodes Error from json. func (s *Error) Decode(d *jx.Decoder) error { if s == nil { return errors.New("invalid: unable to decode Error to nil") } return d.ObjBytes(func(d *jx.Decoder, k []byte) error { switch string(k) { case "code": if err := func() error { v, err := d.Int64() s.Code = int64(v) if err != nil { return err } return nil }(); err != nil { return errors.Wrap(err, "decode field \"code\"") } case "message": if err := func() error { v, err := d.Str() s.Message = string(v) if err != nil { return err } return nil }(); err != nil { return errors.Wrap(err, "decode field \"message\"") } default: return d.Skip() } return nil }) }
SSE
Server-Sent Events (SSE) code generation is supported in ogen for text/event-stream
responses, following the
HTML Server-Sent Events specification
with some Go-specific behavior.
[!NOTE]
Only SSE client generation is supported in ogen for now.
Event shapes
There is no official standard for representing text/event-stream in OpenAPI
before OAS 3.2. Because of this, ogen supports multiple ways of representing SSE
in schema. In ogen, this is called an SSE event shape.
An SSE event may contain the standard id, event, data, and retry fields.
The generated client dispatches an event only when at least one data: line is
present. If the event field is omitted, it defaults to "message" as defined
by the SSE specification.
You can represent SSE events in OpenAPI with multiple shapes. The shape is
selected with x-ogen-sse-event-shape.
data-only
By default, text/event-stream uses the data-only shape:
yamltext/event-stream: schema: type: object properties: message: type: string createdAt: type: string format: date-time
This shape describes only the SSE data field. Standard SSE fields are still
parsed by the client and exposed on the generated event type.
full
full shape describes the full SSE event envelope. This is useful when you need
discriminators on the event field or schema validation for the full envelope.
yamltext/event-stream: x-ogen-sse-event-shape: full schema: oneOf: - $ref: "#/components/schemas/EventA" - $ref: "#/components/schemas/EventB" discriminator: propertyName: event mapping: event_a: "#/components/schemas/EventA" event_b: "#/components/schemas/EventB" # ... EventA: type: object required: [ event, data ] properties: event: type: string enum: [ event_a ] data: $ref: "#/components/schemas/EventAData" EventB: type: object required: [ event, data ] properties: event: type: string enum: [ event_b ] data: $ref: "#/components/schemas/EventBData"
In full mode the schema describes the full SSE event envelope.
It is not required to specify every standard field in the schema. Omitted
standard fields continue to follow default SSE event semantics.
full-array
full-array is the array form of full shape. The schema must be an array of
full SSE event envelopes.
Generated client
Generated SSE clients handle reconnection automatically. Reconnect behavior can
be configured with generated SSE client options, including the initial
Last-Event-ID, retry delay, maximum reconnect attempts, decoder buffer size,
maximum event size, and a retry error handler.
The stream-level last event ID and retry interval are updated automatically as
valid id: and retry: fields are parsed, even if the event is not
dispatched.
If the configured maximum event size is set and reached while parsing an event,
the client returns ErrEventTooLarge and drains the remaining part of that event
before continuing with the next one, without closing the stream.
Generated SSE responses comply with this interface:
gotype Client[E any] interface { Next(ctx context.Context) (E, error) // Returns the next event. All(ctx context.Context) iter.Seq2[E, error] // Exposes iterator over events. State() (state sse.State, latestErr error) // Reports current stream state with the latest or terminal error. Close() error // Closes the stream. }
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