plaid-OpenAPI

Plaid uses the OpenAPI 3.0.0 specification to schematize our docs and to generate our supported client libraries. This provides for a consistent typing experience across our external interfaces. Below we have listed some examples and issues we have found when iterating on the specification.

Adding a new x-* extension tag

If your edit to the OpenAPI spec introduces a new x-* extension, add or update its entry on the Slite Extension Tags page in the same PR (or link the follow-up doc PR from this PR's description). The Slite Editing the OpenAPI file workflow carries the canonical step-by-step; in short, the Extension Tags entry should record:

• granularity — which scope(s) the tag is valid on (schema, object, field, path, operation, $ref target);
• survives strip? — whether the tag passes through cmd/process.go into the published 2020-09-14.yml, or is stripped before consumers see it (all x-plaid-* are stripped by the prefix rule at process.go:348-349; explicitly-internal non-x-plaid-* tags belong in internalUseFields at process.go:20-23);
• primary consumer — the file(s) that read the tag, with file.go:NNN citations;
• enforced vs intent-only — x-hidden-from-docs at path/operation scope is the canonical intent-only example, and is the source of most author confusion.

Pure codegen internals with no author-visible decision may be skipped if you record the reason at the definition site. Background: per the 2026-04-23 inventory, half of the spec's 20 x-* extensions had no Extension Tags row before that revision; missing this step is how that gap accumulated.

Using the OpenAPI generator

You can find examples on the official OpenApiGenerator docs.

Generating Plaid supported client libraries

The following are approximate commands that we use to generate our 5 client libraries:

plaid-node

OpenAPI Generator version: 5.1.1

openapi-generator-cli generate -g typescript-axios  \
-i 2020-09-14.yml \
-o build/generated-node \
-p npmName=plaid,supportsES6=true,modelPropertyNaming=original \
-t local/templates/typescript-axios

plaid-python

OpenAPI Generator version: 6.1

openapi-generator-cli generate -g python \
-i 2020-09-14.yml \
-o build/generated-python \
-p packageName=plaid \
--global-property apiTests=false,modelTests=false \
-t templates/python

plaid-ruby

OpenAPI Generator version: 6.3

openapi-generator-cli generate -g ruby  \
-i 2020-09-14.yml \
-o build/generated-ruby \
--global-property=apiTests=false,modelTests=false,useAutoload=true  \
--library=faraday \
-p gemName=plaid,gemRequiredRubyVersion=">= 3.0.0" \
-t local/templates/ruby

plaid-java

OpenAPI Generator version: 5.1.1

openapi-generator-cli generate -g java \
-i 2020-09-14.yml \
-o build/generated-java \
--library=retrofit2 \
--global-property apiDocs=false,modelDocs=false,apiTests=false,modelTests=false \
-p artifactId=plaid,apiPackage=com.plaid.client.request,modelPackage=com.plaid.client.model,dateLibrary=java8 \
-t templates/java \
--type-mappings=BigDecimal=Double

plaid-go

OpenAPI Generator version: 5.2

openapi-generator-cli -g go \
-i 2020-09-14.yml \
-o build/plaid-go \
--global-property=apiTests=false,modelTests=false,apiDocs=false,modelDocs=false \
-t templates/go \
-p packageName=plaid,enumClassPrefix=true,

All template edits can be found on their corresponding in the /templates folder for the associated library.

Known issues with openapi-generator

The openapi-generator often uses different styles based on the language you are generating.

• We found that we had to modify our mustache templates to get servers and securitySchemes working for some generators. If possible, try not to modify these templates as they cause breaking changes upon upgrading, but modifications might be necessary for cases like these.

• Enums as used by Plaid are extensible; that is, the API may add new enum values at will. However, OpenAPI generator for some languages will enable enum validation by default. You must disable strict enum validation for responses in your generated libraries, or your users may experience crashes when encountering a newly-added enum value in a response.