openapi-schema-ref-parser

OpenAPI Schema Reference Parser

This package recursively parses OpenAPI specifications such that all "$ref": "#/foo" entries are replaced with what the reference in the spec resolves to.

Our goal is to make it easier to load an OpenAPI schema into a search index or tool calling repository for RAG-style LLM usecases.

Install

npm install openapi-schema-ref-parser

Usage Example

import expandRefs from "openapi-schema-ref-parser";

async function expandOpenapiSpec() {
  const specResponse = await fetch(
    "https://api.trieve.ai/api-docs/openapi.json"
  );
  const specText = await specResponse.text();
  const openapiSpec = JSON.parse(specText);

  // Expand all $ref pointers within the OpenAPI document
  const expandedSpec = await expandRefs(openapiSpec, { maxDepth: 1000 });

  // Process each route in the specification
  for (const path in expandedSpec.paths) {
    for (const method in expandedSpec.paths[path]) {
      const methodPath = `${method.toUpperCase()} ${path}`;
      const route = { [methodPath]: expandedSpec.paths[path][method] };

      // Instead of logging, you might want to:
      // - Add to a search index like Trieve.ai
      // - Update a tool repository
      console.log(JSON.stringify(route, null, 2));
    }
  }
}

expandOpenapiSpec();

Context

OpenAPI specs have gotten more valuable in the past couple years of LLMs being around since LLMs are able to intelligently do things once they know about every route available in a given API. However, they can be hard to process into a search index or tool calling repository because they leverage a $ref system.

OpenAPI specifications tend to re-use types across many path's and method's. To simplify their defitions, the final JSON or YAML files contain several field values like {"schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/ErrorResponseBody" }} where the actual value lies at openapiSpec.components.schemas.ErrorResponseBody.

• parses all $ref values to their specifications
• handles circular dependencies