OpenAPI Lambda for Rust 🦀

OpenAPI Lambda for Rust takes an OpenAPI definition and generates Rust boilerplate code for running the API "serverlessly" on AWS Lambda behind an Amazon API Gateway REST API. The generated code automatically routes requests, parses parameters, marshals responses, invokes middleware to authenticate requests, and handles related errors. This project's goal is to enable developers to focus on business logic, not boilerplate.

This project is not affiliated with the OpenAPI Initiative or Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Usage

1. Add dependencies

Add openapi-lambda as a dependency and openapi-lambda-codegen as a build dependency to your crate's Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
openapi-lambda = "0.1"

[build-dependencies]
openapi-lambda-codegen = "0.1"

Both crates must have identical version numbers in Cargo.lock.

2. Generate code

Add a build.rs Rust build script to your crate's root directory (see comments below):

use openapi_lambda_codegen::{ApiLambda, CodeGenerator, LambdaArn};

fn main() {
  CodeGenerator::new(
    // Path to OpenAPI definition (relative to build.rs).
    "openapi.yaml",
    // Output path to a directory for generating artifacts. This directory should be added to
    // `.gitignore`.
    ".openapi-lambda",
  )
  // Define one or more Lambda functions for implementing the API. A single "mono-Lambda" may
  // be used to handle all API endpoints, or endpoints may be grouped into multiple Lambda
  // functions using filters (see docs). Note that Lambda cold start time is roughly
  // proportional to the size of each Lambda binary, so consider splitting APIs into smaller
  // Lambda functions to reduce cold start times.
  .add_api_lambda(ApiLambda::new(
    // Name of the generated Rust module that will contain the API types.
    "backend",
    // AWS CloudFormation logical ID or Amazon Resource Name (ARN) that the Lambda function
    // will have when deployed to AWS. This value is used for adding
    // `x-amazon-apigateway-integration` extensions to the OpenAPI definition, which tells
    // API Gateway which Lambda function to use for handling each API request. If using
    // CloudFormation/SAM with a logical ID, the ARN will be populated automatically during
    // deployment.
    LambdaArn::cloud_formation("BackendApiFunction.Alias")
  ))
  .generate();
}

Include the generated code in your crate's src/lib.rs:

include!(concat!(env!("OUT_DIR"), "/out.rs"));

The generated file out.rs defines a module named models containing Rust types for the input parameters and request/response bodies defined in the OpenAPI definition. It also defines one module for each call to add_api_lambda(), which defines an Api trait with one method for each operation (path + HTTP method) defined in the OpenAPI definition.

Generate documentation

It is often helpful to refer to rustdoc documentation to understand the generated models and API types. To generate documentation, run:

cargo doc --open

3. Implement API handlers

To implement the API, implement the generated Api trait(s). To help you get started, the code generator creates files named <MODULE_NAME>_handler.rs in the configured output directory (e.g., .openapi-lambda/backend_handler.rs) with a placeholder implementation of each Api trait. Copy these files into src/, define corresponding modules in src/lib.rs (e.g., mod backend_handler), and replace each todo!() to implement the API.

Each Api trait declares two associated types that you must define in your implementation:

• AuthOk: the outcome of successful request authentication returned by your middleware (see below). This might represent a user, authentication session, or other abstraction relevant to your API. If none of the API endpoints require authentication, simply use the unit type (()).
• HandlerError: the error type returned by each API handler method. A typical API will define an enum type for errors and have the Api::respond_to_handler_error() method return appropriate HTTP responses depending on the nature of the error (e.g., status code 403 for access denied errors).

4. Implement middleware

The openapi_lambda::Middleware trait defines the interface for authenticating requests and optionally wrapping each API handler to add functionality such as logging and telemetry. A convenience UnauthenticatedMiddleware implementation is provided for APIs with no endpoints that require authentication.

Authenticating requests

The Middleware::AuthOk associated type represents the outcome of a successful call to the Middleware::authenticate() trait method. This is a type you define that might represent a user, authentication session, or other abstraction relevant to your API. If none of the API endpoints require authentication, simply use the unit type (()). The Middleware::AuthOk associated type must match the Api::AuthOk associated type in your Api trait implementation(s).

The Middleware::authenticate() method provides a headers argument with access to all request headers, allowing you to authenticate requests using headers such as Authorization or Cookie. It also provides a lambda_context argument with access to Amazon Cognito identity information if using an API Gateway Cognito user pool authorizer.

If the request fails to authenticate, be sure to return an HttpResponse with the appropriate HTTP status code (i.e., 401).

5. Add binary target(s)

Define a binary target for each Lambda function (e.g., bin/bootstrap_backend.rs) to bootstrap the Lambda runtime. The openapi_lambda::run_lambda() function is the recommended entry point to start the Lambda runtime and begin handling API requests:

// Replace `my_api` with the name of your crate and `backend` with the name of the module
// passed to `ApiLambda::new()`.
use my_api::backend::Api;
use my_api::backend_handler::BackendApiHandler;
use openapi_lambda::run_lambda;

#[tokio::main]
pub async fn main() {
  let api = BackendApiHandler::new(...);
  let middleware = ...; // Instantiate your middleware here.

  run_lambda(|event| api.dispatch_request(event, &middleware)).await
}

6. Compile binaries

Cargo Lambda

The easiest way to compile Lambda functions written in Rust is with Cargo Lambda, which handles any necessary cross-compilation from your development environment to AWS Lambda (either x86-64 or ARM-based).

In addition to installing Cargo Lambda, be sure to install the relevant target (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu or aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu depending on the targeted Lambda function architecture) for your Rust toolchain (e.g., via rustup target add).

After installing Cargo Lambda, run the following command to build Lambda bootstrap binaries in the target/lambda/ directory:

cargo lambda build --release

If targeting ARM-based Lambda functions, be sure to add the --arm64 flag.

musl-cross

An alternative to Cargo Lambda is musl-cross, which provides better backtrace support when compiling on certain environments such as macOS with Apple Silicon. A Homebrew package is available for easy installation on macOS.

In addition to installing musl-cross, be sure to install the relevant target (x86_64-unknown-linux-musl or aarch64-unknown-linux-musl depending on the targeted Lambda function architecture) for your Rust toolchain (e.g., via rustup target add).

To compile binaries for x86-64 Lambda functions, run:

CARGO_TARGET_X86_64_UNKNOWN_LINUX_MUSL_LINKER=x86_64-linux-musl-gcc \
  cargo build --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl --release

To compile binaries for ARM Lambda functions, run:

CARGO_TARGET_AARCH64_UNKNOWN_LINUX_MUSL_LINKER=aarch64-linux-musl-gcc \
  cargo build --target aarch64-unknown-linux-musl --release

The final binaries are written to the target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/ or target/aarch64-unknown-linux-musl/release/ directory, depending on the target architecture.

7. Test and deploy

Deploying to AWS involves creating one or more Lambda functions and an API Gateway REST API.

Lambda functions written in Rust should use one of the provided Lambda runtimes. The provided runtimes require each Lambda function to include a binary named bootstrap, which is produced by the compilation step above.

An API Gateway REST API uses an OpenAPI definition annotated with x-amazon-apigateway-integration extensions that determine which Lambda function is used for handling each API endpoint. The openapi-lambda-codegen crate writes an annotated OpenAPI definition suitable for this purpose to a file named openapi-apigw.yaml in the output directory specified in build.rs (e.g., .openapi-lambda/openapi-apigw.yaml). This OpenAPI definition is modified from the input to help adhere to the subset of OpenAPI features supported by Amazon API Gateway. In particular, all references are merged into a single file, and discriminator properties are removed.

As a best practice, consider using an infrastructure-as-code (IaC) solution such as AWS CloudFormation, AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM), or Terraform.

AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM)

The Petstore example provides a working AWS SAM template (template.yaml) and accompanying Makefile.

AWS SAM provides both a streamlined version of CloudFormation tailored to serverless use cases and a command-line interface (CLI) for deploying to AWS and locally testing APIs.

When defining a SAM CloudFormation stack template, define an AWS::Serverless::Function resource for each Lambda function. Be sure to specify the same logical ID (i.e., YAML key) in your build.rs Rust build script using the LambdaArn::cloud_formation() function. If specifying an AutoPublishAlias property (recommended), append the .Alias suffix to the logical ID passed to LambdaArn::cloud_formation(). This ensures that API Gateway always executes the version of your function associated with the specified alias. Aliases help support quick rollbacks in production by simply updating the alias to point to a previous version of the Lambda function, without waiting for a full stack deploy.

Each AWS::Serverless::Function resource should specify BuildMethod: makefile in the Metadata attribute (see Building custom runtimes). The resource should also specify a CodeUri attribute that points to a directory containing your crate. A Makefile must exist in the specified directory. The Makefile must define a target named build-LOGICAL_ID, where LOGICAL_ID is the logical ID (YAML key) of the resource in the SAM template. The build-LOGICAL_ID target must copy a binary named bootstrap to the directory referenced by the ARTIFACTS_DIR environment variable (set at build time by the AWS SAM CLI). See the Petstore example for details.

The SAM template must also include an AWS::Serverless::Api resource that defines the API Gateway REST API. Use the AWS::Include transform along with the annotated OpenAPI definition openapi-apigw.yaml, which automatically resolves the logical IDs of each Lambda function to the corresponding Amazon Resource Name (ARN) during deployment:

Resources:
  MyApi:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Api
    Properties:
      Name: my-api
      StageName: prod
      DefinitionBody:
        Fn::Transform:
          Name: AWS::Include
          Parameters:
            Location: .openapi-lambda/openapi-apigw.yaml

Before testing or deploying an AWS SAM template, build it by running:

sam build

To start the API locally for testing, run:

sam local start-api

To deploy the template to AWS, run:

sam deploy

Example

The Petstore example illustrates how to use this crate together with AWS SAM to build, test, and deploy an API to AWS Lambda behind an Amazon API Gateway REST API.

Minimum supported Rust version (MSRV)

The minimum supported Rust version (MSRV) of this crate is 1.70.

This crate maintains a policy of supporting Rust releases going back at least 6 months. Changes that break compatibility with Rust releases older than 6 months will not be considered SemVer breaking changes and will not result in a new major version number for this crate. MSRV changes will coincide with minor version updates and will not happen in patch releases.

Logging

The generated code uses the log crate to log requests. Consider using the log4rs or env_logger crates to enable logging in each Lambda function's main() entry point.

Enabling TRACE level logs will log the raw contents of each request and response. This can be useful for debugging, but TRACE logs should never be enabled in production. In addition to being verbose (incurring Amazon CloudWatch Logs charges), enabling TRACE logs in production could log sensitive secrets such as passwords and API keys.

OpenAPI support

The code generator supports a large portion of the OpenAPI 3.0 specification, but gaps remain. If you encounter an unimplemented! error when generating code, please submit a GitHub issue or open a pull request (see CONTRIBUTING.md).

References ($ref) found in OpenAPI definitions are supported, including references to objects in other files. However, references that resolve to other references are currently not supported.

Every endpoint must have an operationId property, which must be unique across all endpoints. The operationId property is used for routing requests and naming the handler method and related types in the generated code.

Authenticated vs. unauthenticated API endpoints

By default, all API endpoints are assumed to require authentication. This means that Middleware::authenticate() is invoked, and the AuthOk result is passed to the handler method.

To denote an endpoint as unauthenticated, add an empty object ({}) to the security property for the endpoint. For example:

security:
  - {}

Unauthenticated endpoints will have their handlers invoked without calling Middleware::authenticate(), and the handler method will not receive an AuthOk parameter.

Note that "unauthenticated" in this context simply means that the middleware will not be used to authenticate requests. The handler method you implement may still perform its own authentication. This is often useful for login endpoints (for which no authentication session exists yet), or for webhook endpoints that require access to the raw request body in order to authenticate the request (e.g., using an HMAC). In the latter case, a request body schema with type: string (optionally with format: binary) should be used. The handler method can deserialize the body after verifying the HMAC.

Request parameters

Request parameters must define a single schema property. The content property is currently not supported.

Cookie parameters (in: cookie) are currently not supported. Header parameters (in: header) must be plain string schemas.

Where supported, non-string parameter types must implement the FromStr trait for parsing. Object types are not supported in request parameters.

Request/response bodies

Request and response bodies that define more than one media type are currently not supported.

The code generator represents request and response bodies as Rust types according to the following table. GitHub issues and pull requests that add support for other widely-used data formats are encouraged.

Media type	Schema type	Rust type	(De)serialization
application/json	string	Vec<u8> for format: binary or String (UTF-8) otherwise	None
application/json	Non-string	See below	serde_json
application/octet-stream	Any	Vec<u8>	None
text/*	Any	String (UTF-8)	None
Others (fallback)	Any	Vec<u8>	None

Strings (type: string)

String schemas that specify at least one enum variant will result in a named Rust enum being generated. Please note that null variants are currently not supported.

Non-enum string types are determined by the format property, as indicated in the table below:

format	Rust type
Unspecified (default)	String
date	chrono::NaiveDate
date-time	chrono::DateTime<Utc>
byte	String (without base64 decoding)
password	String
binary	Vec<u8>
Other	Treated as a verbatim Rust type

Integers (type: integer)

Integer enums are currently not supported. Non-enum integer types are determined by the format property, as indicated in the table below:

format	Rust type
Unspecified (default)	i64
int32	i32
int64	i64
Other	Treated as a verbatim Rust type

Floating-point numbers (type: number)

Number enums are currently not supported. Non-enum number types are determined by the format property, as indicated in the table below:

format	Rust type
Unspecified (default)	f64
float	f32
double	f64
Other	Treated as a verbatim Rust type

Booleans (type: boolean)

Boolean enums are currently not supported. Booleans are always represented as bool.

Objects (type: object)

The table below specifies the generated Rust types depending on an object schema's properties and additionalProperties fields. Please note that properties entries with schemas that are objects or enums must use references ($ref) to named schemas. Other property types may use inline schemas or references.

properties	additionalProperties	Rust type
At least one	false or unspecified	Named struct
At least one	true	Named struct + HashMap<String, serde_json::Value> with #[serde(flatten)]
At least one	Schema	Named struct + HashMap<String, _> with #[serde(flatten)]
None	false or unspecified	openapi_lambda::models::EmptyModel
None	true	HashMap<String, serde_json::Value>
None	Schema	HashMap<String, _>

Arrays (type: array)

Array schemas with uniqueItems: true are represented as indexmap::IndexSet<_>. All other arrays are represented as Vec<_>.

Polymorphism (oneOf)

A named Rust enum is generated for schemas utilizing oneOf, with one variant for each entry contained in the oneOf array. If a discriminator is specified, a Serde internally-tagged enum is generated, with that field as the tag. Otherwise, a Serde untagged enum is generated.

Please note that each oneOf variant must be a named reference ($ref), which determines the name of the Rust enum variant. Each referenced schema must be either an object schema (type: object) or utilize allOf. Inline variant schemas are not supported.

Composed objects (allOf)

Schemas utilizing allOf are treated as objects (see above) after merging all of the component schemas into a single schema of type: object. Each component of an allOf schema must be an object or a nested allOf schema. At most one component may define additionalProperties.

Other schema types

Schemas utilizing anyOf or not are currently not supported.

Responses

Responses must specify individual HTTP status codes. Status code ranges are currently not supported.

Sponsorship

This project is sponsored by Unflakable.