Exportschema

Exportschema is a concept and set of practices used to produce a machine-readable description of data structures, API endpoints, or datasets from code or configuration sources. The resulting artifact is typically a schema in a standard format such as JSON Schema, OpenAPI, Avro, or Protobuf. Exportschema serves as a contract that informs validation, documentation, data interchange, and client generation.

In practice, an exportschema is often exposed from a module or defined through annotations, and tooling reads it to produce external artifacts. It can support both code-first approaches, where types or classes define the schema, and schema-first approaches, where an external schema is mapped into the codebase. This enables automated checks, consistent documentation, and smoother integration between services, data pipelines, and user interfaces.

Common outputs include serialized schema files (JSON or YAML) and generated artifacts such as API clients, server stubs, or data validators. Exportschema tooling may support features like versioning, references, nested structures, and metadata such as descriptions or default values. It is frequently integrated with development and deployment pipelines to ensure that changes to data models are reflected in all consuming systems.

Benefits of exporting schemas include a single source of truth for data shapes, improved developer productivity through automated documentation and client generation, and stronger guarantees for data validation and API compatibility. Considerations include keeping schemas in sync with evolving code, potential exposure of internal details, and the need for tooling to manage schema evolution and deprecation.