Zod Generator

The zod generator — its skill

This file is the DESIGN of your ejected zod generator (generators/zod/): to change the generator, edit this skill first, then make the code match it — a diff to generators/zod/ that has no covering sentence here is incomplete.

What it emits

A standalone <stem>.zod.ts: one export const <Name>Schema per named IR schema, the operationSchemas request/response map, and a zodValidation() middleware.

Design decisions that must hold

• The client stays dependency-free. zod is the CONSUMER's peer dependency; the generated client never imports this module, and this module never imports the client.
• Output-mode-agnostic: one module beside the client whatever the sdk's layout.
• Emits nothing when the model has neither named schemas nor JSON operation bodies — an empty file is worse than no file.
• Validation is opt-in at runtime (use(zodValidation())), never automatic.
• Only ERASABLE TypeScript. The module must run under node --experimental-strip-types with no build step, so nothing that needs a transform is emitted: no enum, no namespace, and no constructor parameter properties. ZodValidationError therefore declares its fields and assigns them in the constructor body — constructor(readonly operationId: string) fails strip-only mode, which is how the generated CLI broke when it imported this module.

The stage files

schemas.ts holds the whole renderer — schema expressions, the operationSchemas map, and the module assembly; index.ts is the entry. Naming and literal escaping come from the TypeScript printer (@redocly/client-generator/printers/typescript).

Ejecting it

redocly eject-generator zod copies this generator's TypeScript source folder to generators/zod/, exactly as we wrote it, importing @redocly/client-generator and @redocly/client-generator/printers/typescript. Running a .ts generator uses Node's type stripping (Node 22.18, 23.6, or newer); newer built-in versions merge in per file with --update. Change the schema shapes, the naming, or what gets a schema at all, and regenerate.

The modify loop

1. Edit this skill: state the new behavior or decision.
2. Make generators/zod/ match it.
3. Run redocly generate-client and inspect the git diff of the generated output — generated files are never hand-edited.

Newer built-in versions merge in with redocly eject-generator zod --update.