Conjure definitions

A Conjure definition is made up of one or more source YAML files. Each file may define multiple types, services and errors. Types may also be imported from other files. Source files must end in .yml. Here is a suggested structure:

your-project/src/main/conjure/foo.yml
your-project/src/main/conjure/bar.yml
your-project/src/main/conjure/baz.yml

The Conjure compiler requires each file to conform to the ConjureSourceFile structure, specified below:

ConjureSourceFile

Note: All field names in the specification are case sensitive. In the following description, if a field is not explicitly REQUIRED or described with a MUST or SHALL, it can be considered OPTIONAL.

ConjureSourceFile

Each source file must be a YAML object with the following allowed fields:

Field	Type	Description
types	TypesDefinition	The types to be included in the definition.
services	Map[`string` → ServiceDefinition]	A map between a service name and its definition. Service names MUST be in PascalCase.

TypesDefinition

The object specifies the types available in the Conjure definition.

Field	Type	Description
conjure‑imports	Map[`string` → `string`]	A map between a namespace and a relative path to a Conjure definition file. Namespace aliases MUST match `^[_a-zA-Z][_a-zA-Z0-9]*$`
imports	Map[`string` → ExternalTypeDefinition]	A map between a type alias and its external definition. Type aliases MUST be in PascalCase.
definitions	NamedTypesDefinition	The types specified in this definition.

conjure-imports

For example, one file called common.yml might define a Conjure type called ProductId:

types:
  definitions:
    default-package: com.palantir.product
    objects:
      ProductId:
        alias: string

A separate file in the same directory, example.yml, can then reference types defined in common.yml:

types:
  conjure-imports:
    common: common.yml
  definitions:
    default-package: com.palantir.product
    objects:
      SomeRequest:
        id: common.ProductId

ExternalTypeDefinition

A type that is not defined within Conjure. Usage of external types is strongly discouraged because Conjure is unable to validate that external types match the serialization format of the base type. They are intended only to migrate existing APIs to Conjure.

Field	Type	Description
base‑type	ConjureType	A `base-type` is provided as a hint to generators for how to handle this type when no external type reference is provided. Note that the serialization format of the `base-type` fallback should match the format of the imported type. If the imported type is a non-primitive JSON object, then a `base-type` of any should be used.
external	ExternalImportDefinition	The external types to reference.

Example:

types:
  imports:
    SomeDataType:
      base-type: string
      external:
        java: com.palantir.package.someDataType

ExternalImportDefinition

References to types that are not defined within Conjure.

Field	Type	Description
java	`string`	The fully qualified Java type.

NamedTypesDefinition

The object specifies the types that are defined in the Conjure definition.

Field	Type	Description
default‑package	`string`
definitions	Map[TypeName → AliasDefinition or ObjectTypeDefinition or UnionTypeDefinition or EnumTypeDefinition]	A map between type names and type definitions.
errors	Map[TypeName → ErrorDefinition]	A map between type names and error definitions.

Package names are used by generator implementations to determine the output location and language-specific namespacing. Package names should follow the Java style naming convention: com.example.name.

ConjureType

A ConjureType is either a reference to an existing TypeName, a ContainerType or a BuiltIn.

TypeName

Named types must be in PascalCase and be unique within a package.

ContainerType

Container types like optional<T>, list<T>, set<T> and map<K, V> can be referenced using their lowercase names, where variables like T, K and V can be substituted for a Conjure named type, a built-in or more container types:

Examples:

optional<datetime>
list<double>
map<string, boolean>
set<SomeExistingType>
map<rid, optional<datetime>>

BuiltIn

Built-in types are always lowercase, to distinguish them from user-defined types which are PascalCase.

Examples:

any
bearertoken
binary
boolean
datetime
double
integer
rid
safelong
string
uuid

AliasDefinition

Definition for an alias complex data type.

Field	Type	Description
alias	ConjureType	REQUIRED. The Conjure type to be aliased.
docs	DocString	Documentation for the type. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.
package	`string`	REQUIRED if `default-package` is not specified. Overrides the `default-package` in NamedTypesDefinition.

ObjectTypeDefinition

Definition for an object complex data type.

Field	Type	Description
fields	Map[`string` → FieldDefinition or ConjureType]	REQUIRED. A map from field names to type names.
docs	DocString	Documentation for the type. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.
package	`string`	REQUIRED if `default-package` is not specified. Overrides the `default-package` in NamedTypesDefinition.

Field names must appear in either lowerCamelCase, or kebab-case, or snake_case. Code generators will respect casing for wire format, but may convert case formats to conform with language restrictions. As a result, field names must be unique independent of case format (e.g. an object may not define both caseFormat and case-format as fields).

Examples:

TypeAlias:
  docs: Some documentation about the whole type
  package: com.palantir.example
  fields:
    foo: string
    bar:
      type: string
      docs: Some documentation about the specific field

FieldDefinition

Definition for a field in a complex data type.

Field	Type	Description
type	ConjureType	REQUIRED. The name of the type of the field. It MUST be a type name that exists within the Conjure definition.
docs	DocString	Documentation for the type. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.

UnionTypeDefinition

Definition for a union complex data type.

Field	Type	Description
union	Map[`string` → FieldDefinition or ConjureType]	REQUIRED. A map from union names to type names. If the value of the field is a `string` it MUST be a type name that exists within the Conjure definition. Union names MUST be in PascalCase.
docs	DocString	Documentation for the type. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.
package	`string`	REQUIRED if `default-package` is not specified. Overrides the `default-package` in NamedTypesDefinition.

It is common for a generator to also generate a visitor interface for each union, to facilitate consumption and customization of behavior depending on the wrapped type. The interface includes a visit() method for each wrapped type, as well as a visitUnknown(String unknownType) method which is executed when the wrapped object does not match any of the known member types.

Example:

Payload:
  package: com.palantir.example
  union:
    serviceLog: ServiceLog
    notAServiceLog: RequestLog

EnumTypeDefinition

Definition for an enum complex data type.

Field	Type	Description
values	List[string or EnumValueDefinition]	REQUIRED. A list of enumeration values. All elements in the list MUST be unique and be UPPERCASE.
docs	DocString	Documentation for the type. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.
package	`string`	REQUIRED if `default-package` is not specified. Overrides the `default-package` in NamedTypesDefinition.

Example:

LoadState:
  values:
    - LOADING
    - LOADED
    - ERROR

EnumValueDefinition

Definition for a single value within an enumeration.

Field	Type	Description
value	string	REQUIRED. The enumeration value. Value MUST be unique and be UPPERCASE.
docs	DocString	Documentation for the type. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.

ErrorDefinition

Definition for an error type.

Field	Type	Description
namespace	`string`	REQUIRED. The namespace of the error. The namespace MUST be in PascalCase.
code	ErrorCode	REQUIRED. The general category for the error.
safe‑args	Map[`string` → FieldDefinition or ConjureType]	REQUIRED. A map from argument names to type names. These arguments are considered safe in accordance with the SLS specification. If the value of the field is a `string` it MUST be a type name that exists within the Conjure definition.
unsafe‑args	Map[`string` → FieldDefinition or ConjureType]	REQUIRED. A map from argument names to type names. These arguments are considered unsafe in accordance with the SLS specification. If the value of the field is a `string` it MUST be a type name that exists within the Conjure definition.
docs	DocString	Documentation for the type. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.

ErrorCode

A field describing the error category. MUST be one of the following strings, with HTTP status codes defined in the wire spec:

PERMISSION_DENIED
INVALID_ARGUMENT
NOT_FOUND
CONFLICT
REQUEST_ENTITY_TOO_LARGE
FAILED_PRECONDITION
INTERNAL
TIMEOUT
CUSTOM_CLIENT
CUSTOM_SERVER

ServiceDefinition

A service is a collection of endpoints.

Field	Type	Description
name	TypeName	REQUIRED A human readable name for the service.
package	`string`	REQUIRED The package of the service.
base‑path	PathString	REQUIRED The base path of the service. The path MUST have a leading `/`. The base path is prepended to each endpoint path to construct the final URL. Path parameters are not allowed.
default‑auth	AuthDefinition	REQUIRED The default authentication mechanism for all endpoints in the service.
docs	DocString	Documentation for the service. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.
endpoints	Map[`string` → EndpointDefinition]	REQUIRED A map of endpoint names to endpoint definitions.

PathString

A PathString consists of segments separated by forward slashes, /. Segments may be literals (any alphanumeric string beginning with a letter and may contain the characters ., _, -) or path parameters (see below).

When comparing multiple paths, the path with the longest concrete path should be matched first.

Path parameters

Curly braces, {}, can be used to mark a section of a PathString as parameterized.

Examples: Given a Conjure definition with the following paths, a request with path /branch/foo would be matched to /branch/foo.

/branch/{branchPath}
/branch/foo

Assuming the definition contains multiple path parameters (as shown below), a request with path path/dataset/fetch would be matched to /path/dataset/{arg}.

/path/{arg}/fetch
/path/dataset/{arg}

AuthDefinition

A field describing an authentication mechanism. It is a string which MUST be of the following:

none: do not apply authorization requirements
header: apply an Authorization header argument/requirement to every endpoint.
cookie:{{name}}: apply a cookie argument/requirement to every endpoint, where {{name}} should be replaced with your desired cookie name.

EndpointDefinition

An object representing an endpoint. An endpoint describes a method, arguments and return type.

Field	Type	Description
http	`string`	REQUIRED The operation and path for the endpoint. It MUST follow the shorthand `<method> <path>`, where `<method>` is one of GET, DELETE, POST, or PUT, and `<path>` is a PathString.
markers	List[`string`]	List of types that serve as additional metadata for the endpoint. If the value of the field is a `string` it MUST be a type name that exists within the Conjure definition.
auth	AuthDefinition	The authentication mechanism for the endpoint. Overrides `default-auth` in ServiceDefinition.
returns	ConjureType	The name of the return type of the endpoint. The value MUST be a type name that exists within the Conjure definition. If not specified, then the endpoint does not return a value.
args	Map[`string` → ArgumentDefinition or ConjureType]	A map between argument names and argument definitions. If the value of the field is a `string` it MUST be a type name that exists within the Conjure definition. Furthermore, if a `string` the argument will default to `auto` ArgumentDefinition.ParamType.
docs	DocString	Documentation for the endpoint. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.
deprecated	DocString	Documentation for the deprecation of the endpoint. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.

ArgumentDefinition

An object representing an argument to an endpoint.

Field	Type	Description
type	ConjureType	REQUIRED. The type of the value of the argument. The type name MUST exist within the Conjure definition. If this ArgumentDefinition has a param-type of `body` then there are no restrictions on the type. If the param-type is `path`, `header` or `query` then the de-aliased type MUST be an enum, a primitive or an optional of one of these. `query` type parameters may accept lists and sets in addition to optional containers. Additionally, the type MUST NOT be `bearertoken` when the param-type is `header` or `query`.
markers	List[`string`]	List of types that serve as additional metadata for the argument. If the value of the field is a `string` it MUST be a type name that exists within the Conjure definition.
deprecated	`string`	Documentation for why this argument is deprecated. CommonMark syntax MAY be used for rich text representation.
param‑id	`string`	An identifier to use as a parameter value. If the param type is `header` or `query`, this field may be populated to define the identifier that is used over the wire. If this field is undefined for the `header` or `query` param types, the argument name is used as the wire identifier. Population of this field is invalid if the param type is not `header` or `query`.
param‑type	ArgumentDefinition.ParamType	The type of the endpoint parameter. If omitted the default type is `auto`.

Arguments with parameter type body MUST NOT be of type optional<binary>, or, intuitively, of a type that reduces to optional<binary> via unfolding of alias definitions and nested optional.

ArgumentDefinition.ParamType

A field describing the type of an endpoint parameter. It is a string which MUST be one of the following:

auto: defined as the singluar body parameter or a path parameter if the name of the argument definition matches a path parameter
path: defined as a path parameter; the argument name must appear in the request line.
body: defined as the singular body parameter.
header: defined as a header parameter.
query: defined as a querystring parameter.

DocString

Throughout the specification docs fields are noted as supporting CommonMark markdown formatting. Where Conjure tooling renders rich text it MUST support, at a minimum, markdown syntax as described by CommonMark 0.27.

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Conjure definitions

ConjureSourceFile

TypesDefinition

conjure-imports

ExternalTypeDefinition

ExternalImportDefinition

NamedTypesDefinition

ConjureType

TypeName

ContainerType

BuiltIn

AliasDefinition

ObjectTypeDefinition

FieldDefinition

UnionTypeDefinition

EnumTypeDefinition

EnumValueDefinition

ErrorDefinition

ErrorCode

ServiceDefinition

PathString

Path parameters

AuthDefinition

EndpointDefinition

ArgumentDefinition

ArgumentDefinition.ParamType

DocString

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conjure_definitions.md

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Conjure definitions

ConjureSourceFile

TypesDefinition

conjure-imports

ExternalTypeDefinition

ExternalImportDefinition

NamedTypesDefinition

ConjureType

TypeName

ContainerType

BuiltIn

AliasDefinition

ObjectTypeDefinition

FieldDefinition

UnionTypeDefinition

EnumTypeDefinition

EnumValueDefinition

ErrorDefinition

ErrorCode

ServiceDefinition

PathString

Path parameters

AuthDefinition

EndpointDefinition

ArgumentDefinition

ArgumentDefinition.ParamType

DocString