Generated contract doesn't include input and output types

[akodkod]

Hi,

I'm unsure if this is an issue, but when I generate contract.json, it doesn't include any input or output schemas. However, when I do the same for OpenAPI, those schemas are included.

Here is the repository to reproduce the issue:
https://github.com/akodkod/orpc-contract

I prefer not to use a monorepo to import my router. Is there a solution to include types in a contract or to import the OpenAPI schema on the client?

Thank you!

Have a good day,
Andrew

[dosubot]

Hi @akodkod! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the orpc team.

This is expected: contract.json in orpc is intentionally schema-agnostic and doesn't include input/output schemas by default, while OpenAPI specs do include them for each endpoint. This design keeps contract.json lightweight and decoupled from heavy schema representations, unless you use OpenAPI features or custom plugins reference.

If you want to use input/output schemas on the client without a monorepo, you have a few options:

• Use OpenAPILink on the client and import the OpenAPI spec JSON (which includes all schemas). You can fetch the spec at runtime and pass it to OpenAPILink, e.g.:

  const specJSON = await fetch("/api/openapi-spec.json").then(r => r.json())
  const link = new OpenAPILink(specJSON)

  This lets the client derive operation IDs and route requests without importing the router or leaking business logic reference.

• If you need type safety with contract.json, you can use contract as typeof router on the client, but this doesn't add schemas to the contract.json itself reference.

• There are utilities to generate contract.json from an OpenAPI spec, which can then be used with OpenAPILink reference.

Importing the router directly on the client is not recommended, as it can leak server logic. If you need to expose types, consider minifying and exporting only the contract, not the full router reference.

If you need contract.json to include schemas, it would require custom logic or a plugin, as this isn't supported out of the box. For most use cases, using the OpenAPI spec on the client is the recommended approach.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[dinwwwh]

There are no way to serialize/deserialize or represent standard schema in json, so this is expected and you can use something like this contract as typeof router for typesafety

[tresorama]

Opened PR for including this in docs https://github.com/unnoq/orpc/pull/752