# Schema generation

A GraphQL schema will be derived automatically at compile-time (no reflection) from the types present in your resolver.

If you're more interested in the schema-first approach, it is also possible to generate the Scala code from a GraphQL schema file.

The table below shows how common Scala types are converted to GraphQL types.

Scala Type	GraphQL Type
Boolean	Boolean
Int	Int
Float	Float
Double	Float
String	String
java.util.UUID	ID
Unit	Unit (custom scalar)
Long	Long (custom scalar)
BigInt	BigInt (custom scalar)
BigDecimal	BigDecimal (custom scalar)
java.time.Instant	Instant (custom scalar)
java.time.LocalDate	LocalDate (custom scalar)
java.time.LocalTime	LocalTime (custom scalar)
java.time.LocalDateTime	LocalDateTime (custom scalar)
java.time.OffsetDateTime	OffsetDateTime (custom scalar)
java.time.ZonedDateTime	ZonedDateTime (custom scalar)
Case Class	Object
Sealed Trait	Enum, Union or Interface (see below)
Option[A]	Nullable A
List[A]	List of A
Set[A]	List of A
Seq[A]	List of A
Vector[A]	List of A
A => B	A and B
(A, B)	Object with 2 fields `_1` and `_2`
Either[A, B]	Object with 2 nullable fields `left` and `right`
Map[A, B]	List of Object with 2 fields `key` and `value`
ZIO[R, Nothing, A]	A
ZIO[R, Throwable, A]	Nullable A
Future[A]	Nullable A
ZStream[R, Throwable, A]	A (subscription) or List of A (query, mutation)
Json (from Circe (opens new window))	Json (custom scalar, need `import caliban.interop.circe.json._`)
Json (from play-json (opens new window))	Json (custom scalar, need `import caliban.interop.play.json._`)

See the Custom Types section to find out how to support your own types.

If you want Caliban to support other standard types, feel free to file an issue (opens new window) or even a PR.

# Enums, unions, interfaces

A sealed trait will be converted to a different GraphQL type depending on its content:

a sealed trait with only case objects will be converted to an ENUM
a sealed trait with only case classes will be converted to a UNION

GraphQL does not support empty objects, so in case a sealed trait mixes case classes and case objects, a union type will be created and the case objects will have a "fake" field named _ which is not queryable.

sealed trait Origin
object Origin {
  case object EARTH extends Origin
  case object MARS  extends Origin
  case object BELT  extends Origin
}

The snippet above will produce the following GraphQL type:

enum Origin {
  BELT
  EARTH
  MARS
}

Here's an example of union:

sealed trait Role
object Role {
  case class Captain(shipName: String) extends Role
  case class Engineer(specialty: String) extends Role
  case object Mechanic extends Role
}

The snippet above will produce the following GraphQL type:

union Role = Captain | Engineer | Mechanic

type Captain {
  shipName: String!
}

type Engineer {
  specialty: String!
}

type Mechanic {
  _: Boolean!
}

If your type needs to be shared between multiple unions you can use the @GQLValueType annotation to have caliban proxy to another type beyond the sealed trait.

case class Pilot(callSign: String)

sealed trait Role
object Role {
  case class Captain(shipName: String) extends Role
  case class Engineer(specialty: String) extends Role
  @GQLValueType
  case class Proxy(pilot: Pilot) extends Role
}

This will produce the following GraphQL Types:

union Role = Captain | Engineer | Pilot

type Captain {
  shipName: String!
}

type Engineer {
  specialty: String!
}

type Pilot {
  callSign: String!
}

If you prefer an Interface instead of a Union type, add the @GQLInterface annotation to your sealed trait. An interface will be created with all the fields that are common to the case classes extending the sealed trait, as long as they return the same type.

If you prefer to have a Union type instead of an Enum, even when the sealed trait contains only objects, add the @GQLUnion annotation.

# Case classes and sealed traits

The transformation between Scala types and GraphQL types is handled by a typeclass named Schema. As mentioned earlier, Caliban provides instances of Schema for all basic Scala types, but inevitably you will need to support your own types, in particular case classes and sealed traits.

Caliban is able to generate instances of Schema for case classes and sealed traits. You have two choices for doing that: auto derivation and semi-auto derivation.

# Auto derivation

Auto derivation is achieved easily by adding the following import:

import caliban.schema.Schema.auto._

Using this import, Caliban will generate Schema instances for all the case classes and sealed traits that are found inside your resolver.

Limitations

Auto derivation is the easiest way to get started, but it has some drawbacks:

If a type is referenced in several places inside your resolver, a Schema will be generated for each occurrence, which can lead to longer compilation times and a high amount of generated code (a sign of this is that the compiler will suggest increasing -Xmax-inlines in Scala 3).
When a Schema is missing for a nested type inside your resolver, it can sometimes be difficult to find out which type is missing when using auto derivation, because the error message will mention the root type and not the nested one.
The macro that generates the Schema instances sometimes gets confused when there are a lot of nested or recursive types, and can mistakenly generate a Schema for types that already have a Schema in scope. For this reason, semi-auto derivation is recommended for non-trivial schemas.

# Semi-auto derivation

Semi-auto derivation is achieved as follows for each type that needs a Schema instance (MyClass in the example):

In Scala 3, derivation doesn't support value classes and opaque types. You can use Schema.genDebug to print the generated code in the console.

# Combining auto and semi-auto derivation

For some types such as enums, it might be desirable to use auto derivation to reduce boilerplate schema definitions:

# Deriving fields from case class methods (Scala 3 only)

In certain cases, your type might contain fields whose value depends on other fields. For example, you might have a Person type with a fullName field that is derived from the firstName and lastName fields. In this case, you can use the @GQLField annotation to indicate that the field should be derived from the method with the same name.

import caliban.schema.Schema
import caliban.schema.Annotations.GQLField

case class Person(
  firstName: String,
  lastName: String
) derives Schema.SemiAuto {
  @GQLField def fullName: String = s"$firstName $lastName"
}

This case class will generate the following GraphQL type:

type Person {
  firstName: String!
  lastName: String!
  fullName: String!
}

The methods annotated with @GQLField can return any type for which a Schema is defined for, including effects such as ZIO and ZQuery. In addition, you can use any other annotation that is supported for case class arguments, such as @GQLName, @GQLDescription and @GQLDeprecated.

To reduce boilerplate of annotating a lot of methods with @GQLField, Caliban also provides the @GQLFieldsFromMethods annotation that can be used to derive fields from all methods in a case class / case object.

For demonstration purposes (only!), the example above can be rewritten as follows:

import caliban.schema.Annotations.GQLFieldsFromMethods

@GQLFieldsFromMethods
case class Person(
  fullName: String
) derives Schema.SemiAuto {
  private val split = fullName.split(" ")
  
  def firstName: String = split.head
  def lastName: String  = split.last
}

TIP

Annotate a public method with @GQLExcluded to exclude it from field derivation.

Caveats

Derivation of fields via the @GQLField / @GQLFieldsFromMethods annotation can be convenient in certain cases, but has the following limitations:

The method cannot take arguments. If you need to derive a field that requires arguments, you can return a function instead.
The method must be public (i.e. not private or protected).
It currently only works with methods (i.e., def). If you need to cache the output of the method, you can create a private lazy val and return it from the method.
It is not compatible with ahead-of-time compilation (e.g., generating a GraalVM native-image executable).

# Arguments

To declare a field that take arguments, create a dedicated case class representing the arguments and make the field a function from this class to the result type.

case class Character(name: String, origin: Origin)
case class FilterArgs(origin: Option[Origin])
case class Queries(characters: FilterArgs => List[Character])

The snippet above will produce the following GraphQL type:

type Queries {
  characters(origin: Origin): [Character!]!
}

Caliban provides auto-derivation for common types such as Int, String, List, Option, etc. but you can also support your own types by providing an implicit instance of ArgBuilder that defines how incoming arguments from that types should be extracted. You also need a Schema for those types.

Derivation of ArgBuilder for case classes works similarly to Schema derivation. You can use auto derivation by adding the following import:

import caliban.schema.ArgBuilder.auto._

Or you can use semi-auto derivation as follows:

TIP

There is no ArgBuilder for tuples. If you have multiple arguments, use a case class containing all of them instead of a tuple.

# Input objects

GraphQL input objects can be derived from case classes in the same way as arguments

case class Name(firstName: String, lastName: String)
case class NameArgs(name: Name)
case class Queries(author: NameArgs => String)

This will generate the following schema:

input NameInput {
    firstName: String!
    lastName: String!
}

type Queries {
    author(name: NameInput!): String!
}

# `@oneOf` input objects

A @oneOf input object is a special type of input object, in which only one of its fields must be set by the client. It is especially useful when you want a user to be able to choose between several potential input types. This feature is still an RFC and therefore not yet officially part of the GraphQL spec, but Caliban supports it!

To define a @oneOf input object, you need to create a sealed trait (or an enum in Scala 3) with case classes that extend it. The case classes must have a single field, which is the field that the client can set. The sealed trait / enum must be annotated with @GQLOneOfInput.

This will generate the following schema, and the validation will verify that only one of those fields is provided in incoming queries.

input NameInput {
    firstName: String!
    lastName: String!
}

input AuthorInput @oneOf {
    id: String
    name: NameInput
}

type Queries {
    author(lookup: AuthorInput!): String!
}

A few things to keep in mind when using @oneOf input objects:

The leaf case classes must contain exactly 1 non-nullable field. If you need more than one field, you should wrap them in a case class.
The field names in the leaf cases must be unique.
You must have a Schema and an ArgBuilder for any objects used in the leaf cases.

# Custom types

Caliban provides auto-derivation for common types such as Int, String, List, Option, etc. but you can also support your own types by providing an implicit instance of Schema. Note that you don't have to do this if your types are just case classes composed of common types.

An easy way to do this is to reuse existing instances and use contramap to map from your type to the original type. Here's an example of creating an instance for refined (opens new window)'s NonEmptyString reusing existing instance for String (if you use refined, you might want to look at caliban-refined (opens new window)):

import caliban.schema._
implicit val nonEmptyStringSchema: Schema[Any, NonEmptyString] = 
  Schema.stringSchema.contramap(_.value)

You can also use the scalarSchema helper to create your own scalar types, providing a name, an optional description, and a function from your type to a ResponseValue:

import caliban.schema._
import caliban.ResponseValue.ObjectValue

implicit val unitSchema: Schema[Any, Unit] =
  Schema.scalarSchema("Unit", None, None, None, _ => ObjectValue(Nil))

If you are using a custom type as part of the input you also have to provide an implicit instance of ArgBuilder. For example here's how to do that for java.time.LocalDate:

import java.time.LocalDate
import scala.util.Try

import caliban.Value
import caliban.CalibanError.ExecutionError
import caliban.schema.ArgBuilder

implicit val localDateArgBuilder: ArgBuilder[LocalDate] = {
  case Value.StringValue(value) =>
    Try(LocalDate.parse(value))
      .fold(ex => Left(ExecutionError(s"Can't parse $value into a LocalDate", innerThrowable = Some(ex))), Right(_))
  case other => Left(ExecutionError(s"Can't build a LocalDate from input $other"))
}

Value classes (case class SomeWrapper(self: SomeType) extends AnyVal) will be unwrapped by default in Scala 2 (this is not supported by Scala 3 derivation).

# Effects

Fields can return ZIO effects. This allows you to leverage all the features provided by ZIO: timeouts, retries, access to ZIO environment, memoizing, etc. An effect will be run every time a query requiring the corresponding field is executed.

import zio._

type CharacterName = String
case class Character(name: CharacterName)
case class Queries(characters: Task[List[Character]],
                   character: CharacterName => RIO[Console, Character])

If you don't use ZIO environment (R = Any), there is nothing special to do to get it working.

If you require a ZIO environment and use Scala 2, you can't use Schema.gen or the import we saw previously because they expect R to be Any. Instead, you need to make a new object that extends caliban.schema.GenericSchema[R] for your custom R. Then you can use gen or auto from that object to generate your schema.

import caliban._
import caliban.schema._

type MyEnv = Console 

object customSchema extends GenericSchema[MyEnv]
import customSchema.auto._

// if you use semi-auto generation, use this instead:
// implicit val characterSchema: Schema[MyEnv, Character] = customSchema.gen
// implicit val queriesSchema: Schema[MyEnv, Queries] = customSchema.gen

val queries = Queries(ZIO.attempt(???), _ => ZIO.succeed(???))
val api = graphQL(RootResolver(queries))

If you require a ZIO environment and use Scala 3, things are simpler since you don't need GenericSchema. Just make sure to use Schema.gen with the proper R type parameter. To make sure Caliban uses the proper environment, you need to specify it explicitly to graphQL(...), unless you already have Schema instances for your root operations in scope.

val queries = Queries(ZIO.attempt(???), _ => ZIO.succeed(???))
val api = graphQL[MyEnv, Queries, Unit, Unit](RootResolver(queries))
// or
// implicit val queriesSchema: Schema[MyEnv, Queries] = Schema.gen
// val api = graphQL(RootResolver(queries)) // it will infer MyEnv thanks to the instance above

When using the derives syntax in Scala 3, you need to create an object extending caliban.schema.SchemaDerivation[R] and use the SemiAuto method to generate the schema.

object customSchema extends SchemaDerivation[MyEnv]
case class Queries(test: RIO[MyEnv, List[Int]]) derives customSchema.SemiAuto

# Subscriptions

All the fields of the subscription root case class MUST return ZStream or ? => ZStream objects.

The cats and monix interop modules also let you use fs2 Stream and monix Observable respectively.

# Annotations

Caliban supports a few annotations to enrich data types:

@GQLName("name") allows you to specify a different name for a data type or a field.
@GQLInputName("name") allows you to specify a different name for a data type used as an input (by default, the suffix Input is appended to the type name).
@GQLDescription("description") lets you provide a description for a data type or field. This description will be visible when your schema is introspected.
@GQLDeprecated("reason") allows deprecating a field or an enum value.
@GQLExcluded allows you to hide a field from the generated schema.
@GQLInterface to force a sealed trait generating an interface instead of a union.
@GQLDirective(directive: Directive) to add a directive to a field or type.
@GQLValueType(isScalar) forces a type to behave as a value type for derivation. Meaning that caliban will ignore the outer type and take the first case class parameter as the real type. If isScalar is true, it will generate a scalar named after the case class (default: false).
@GQLDefault("defaultValue") allows you to specify a default value for an input field using GraphQL syntax. The default value will be visible in your schema's SDL and during introspection.
@GQLOneOfInput allows you turn a sealed trait or Scala 3 enum into an @oneOf input type.

# Java 8 Time types

Caliban provides implicit Schema types for the standard java.time types, by default these will use the ISO standard strings for serialization and deserialization. However, you can customize this behavior by using explicit constructor available under the ArgBuilder companion object. For instance, you can specify an instantEpoch to handle instants which are encoded using a Long from the standard java epoch time (January 1st 1970 00:00:00). For some time formats you can also specify a specific DateTimeFormatter to handle your particular date time needs.

# Using features that are disabled by default

Some features of Caliban's schema derivation are disabled by default. To enable them, you need to declare a custom schema derivation object like this:

# SemanticNonNull support

Caliban supports deriving schemas to the form that supports the SemanticNonNull type RFC (opens new window), by introducing the @semanticNonNull directive. While Caliban resolves all fallible effectful types (ZIO[R, Throwable, A], ...) as nullable by default, with the feature enabled, fields that don't get resolved to nullable types (for example, ZIO[R, Throwable, A] where A is not Option[A], ...) will be marked with @semanticNonNull to express that the field never returns null unless the effect fails. @GQLNullable annotation can be used to override this behavior per field.

If you have custom types that override the Schema trait, make sure to override nullable and canFail methods to return the correct values. All types that return false for nullable and true for canFail will be treated as semantically non-nullable.

# Building Schemas by hand

Sometimes for whatever reason schema generation fails. This can happen if your schema has co-recursive types and derivation is unable to generate a schema for them. In cases like these you may need to instead create your own schema by hand.

Consider the case where you have three types which create cyclical dependencies on one another

import zio.UIO

case class Group(id: String, users: UIO[List[User]], parent: UIO[Option[Group]], organization: UIO[Organization])
case class Organization(id: String, groups: UIO[List[Group]])
case class User(id: String, group: UIO[Group])

These three types all depend on one another and if you attempt to generate a schema from them you will either end up with compiler errors or you will end up with a nasty runtime error from a NullPointerException. To help the compiler out we can hand generate the types for these case classes instead.

# Schema transformations

It is also possible to modify your schemas after they have been generated. This can be useful if you want to rename or remove particular types, fields or arguments from your schema without modifying the related Scala types.

For that, simply use the GraphQL#transform method and provide one of the possible transformers:

RenameType to rename types (providing a list of (OldName -> NewName))
RenameField to rename a field (providing a list of (TypeName -> oldName -> newName))
RenameArgument to rename an argument (providing a list of (TypeName -> fieldName -> oldArgumentName -> newArgumentName))
ExcludeField to exclude a field (providing a list of (TypeName -> fieldToBeExcluded))
ExcludeInputField to exclude an input field (providing a list of (TypeName -> fieldToBeExcluded))
ExcludeArgument to exclude an argument (providing a list of (TypeName -> fieldName -> argumentToBeExcluded))
ExcludeDirectives to exclude fields and input fields annotated with a specific directive (providing a list of GQLDirective or a Directive => Boolean predicate)

In the following example, we can expose 2 different APIs created from the same schema: the v1 API will not expose the nicknames field of the Character type.

case class Beta() extends GQLDirective(Directive("beta"))
case class Queries(character: Character)

case class Character(
  name: String,
  @Beta nicknames: List[String]
)

val apiBeta = graphQL(RootResolver(Queries(???, ???)))
val apiV1   = apiBeta.transform(Transformer.ExcludeDirectives(Beta()))

// alternatively:
// val apiV1 = apiBeta.transform(Transformer.ExcludeField("Character" -> "nicknames"))

You can also create your own transformers by extending the Transformer trait and implementing its methods.

← Getting Started Code generation →

# Schema generation

# Enums, unions, interfaces

# Case classes and sealed traits

# Auto derivation

# Semi-auto derivation

# Combining auto and semi-auto derivation

# Deriving fields from case class methods (Scala 3 only)

# Arguments

# Input objects

# @oneOf input objects

# Custom types

# Effects

# Subscriptions

# Annotations

# Java 8 Time types

# Using features that are disabled by default

# SemanticNonNull support

# Building Schemas by hand

# Schema transformations

# `@oneOf` input objects