spring-boot-openapi-generics-clients — Production-Ready, Type-Safe API Clients with Generics

[bsayli]

Category: Announcements
Tags/labels: openapi, spring-boot, generics, client-generation

💭 How are you using generics-aware OpenAPI clients in your stack?

Hi everyone 👋

I’m curious how others are approaching generics-aware client generation.

This repository — spring-boot-openapi-generics-clients — demonstrates one production-ready implementation, but I’d love to hear how you are adapting similar concepts in your own projects:

• Are you customizing OpenAPI templates or using schema composition to express generics?
• Do you follow a unified { data, meta } response envelope pattern
• How do you handle Problem Details (RFC 9457) on the client side?

💭 Have you tried using generics or unified envelopes in your APIs?
Share your approach — even a short note helps others discover new patterns and trade-offs.

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🚀 What this project provides

• ServiceResponse<T> and ServiceClientResponse<T> as reusable generic bases
• Thin, strongly-typed wrappers auto-generated from OpenAPI specs
• Cleaner, smaller, and easier-to-maintain client libraries
• Works out-of-the-box with Spring Boot 3.4, OpenAPI Generator 7.x, and Springdoc 2.8+
• Includes tests, adoption guides, and end-to-end examples for real-world use cases

🖼 Demo & Docs

Check the repository for:

• Swagger UI screenshots of the enhanced OpenAPI schema

• Examples of generated client classes — before vs after generics overlay

• Detailed adoption guides for both sides of the architecture:

  • Server-Side Adoption Guide
  • Client-Side Integration Guide

📖 Background

This work began with my Medium article:

👉 We Made OpenAPI Generator Think in Generics

It has since evolved into a full reference project — complete with documentation, templates, and examples that demonstrate how to make OpenAPI Generator truly generics-aware.

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💬 I’d love to hear your feedback, questions, or real-world insights.
Drop a comment below — even a few words help others explore and refine this approach.