Generate, Package, and Publish: A TypeScript API Client for NestJS

Leveraging Swagger and OpenAPI to Generate a TypeScript Client for NestJS

Generate, Package, and Publish: A TypeScript API Client for NestJS

Whether you’re developing a frontend application, a microservice, or a third-party integration, a well-structured TypeScript API client ensures type-safe, consistent, and efficient communication with your API.

Manually building an API client can be tedious and error-prone, which is why more projects are adopting auto-generated API clients for improved reliability and efficiency.

This tutorial will guide you through creating a TypeScript API client for a NestJS server. The process consists of three main steps:

1. Generate an OpenAPI JSON file using the Swagger module in a NestJS app.
2. Create TypeScript client files with the swagger-typescript-api library.
3. Package and publish the client as an npm module.

By the end, you’ll have a reusable TypeScript API client that can be easily shared and integrated into frontend applications or other services.

Generate OpenAPI JSON File Using Swagger in NestJS

First, install the @nestjs/swagger package in your NestJS project: