Auto-Generate OpenAPI Schemas from Spatie Laravel Data

Spatie Laravel Data (spatie/laravel-data) is widely used for type-safe Data Transfer Objects (DTOs), request validation, and API resource transformation in Laravel. Geni provides first-class, opt-in static analysis support for both v3 and v4. When a controller action accepts a Data class or returns one, Geni automatically generates matching OpenAPI schemas — no redundant Form Requests or manual annotations required.

Request Injection

When a controller action type-hints a class extending Spatie\LaravelData\Data, Geni inspects that class definition and builds the full request body schema from its constructor properties and validation attributes:

use App\Data\UserData;
use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;

class UserController
{
    public function store(UserData $data): JsonResponse
    {
        // ...
    }
}

namespace App\Data;

use Spatie\LaravelData\Attributes\Validation\Email;
use Spatie\LaravelData\Attributes\Validation\Max;
use Spatie\LaravelData\Attributes\Validation\Min;
use Spatie\LaravelData\Attributes\Validation\Required;
use Spatie\LaravelData\Data;
use Spatie\LaravelData\Optional;

class UserData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        #[Required]
        #[Min(3)]
        #[Max(50)]
        public string $name,

        #[Required]
        #[Email]
        public string $email,

        public ?AddressData $address = null,

        public Optional|string $bio,
    ) {}
}

Inferred Request Body Schema

Geni reads each constructor property and its attributes to produce the following inferences:

name: type: string, minLength: 3, maxLength: 50, added to the required array.
email: type: string, format: email, added to the required array.
address: Nested object schema or $ref: '#/components/schemas/AddressData', not required (default is null).
bio: type: string, not required (typed as Optional).

Response Transformation

Geni automatically recognizes Data class responses across all common usage patterns:

public function show(): UserData
{
    return UserData::from($user);
}

public function show()
{
    return UserData::from($user);
}

public function show()
{
    return new UserData('Alice', 'alice@example.com');
}

public function index()
{
    return UserData::collect(User::all());
}

When returning UserData::collect(...), Geni documents a 200 response with type: array whose items match the UserData schema.

Supported Validation Attributes

Geni statically parses attributes from the Spatie\LaravelData\Attributes\Validation\* namespace:

Spatie Attribute	JSON Schema Property
`#[Required]`	Added to schema `required` list
`#[Nullable]`	Omitted from schema `required` list
`#[Min(n)]`	`minLength: n` (string) or `minimum: n` (number)
`#[Max(n)]`	`maxLength: n` (string) or `maximum: n` (number)
`#[Between(min, max)]`	`minimum` and `maximum` / `minLength` and `maxLength`
`#[Email]`	`format: "email"`
`#[Url]`, `#[ActiveUrl]`	`format: "uri"`
`#[Uuid]`	`format: "uuid"`
`#[Regex('/^[a-z]+$/')]`	`pattern: "^[a-z]+$"`
`#[DataCollectionOf(ItemData::class)]`	Infers item schema for collections

Geni never requires spatie/laravel-data in your production environment. Static analysis runs entirely at parse time. If a project does not use Spatie Data, Geni ignores Data classes with zero runtime impact.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Integrations

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Reference

Auto-Generate OpenAPI Schemas from Spatie Laravel Data

Request Injection

Inferred Request Body Schema

Response Transformation

Supported Validation Attributes

​Request Injection

​Inferred Request Body Schema

​Response Transformation

​Supported Validation Attributes

Request Injection

Inferred Request Body Schema

Response Transformation

Supported Validation Attributes