tRPC Docs Generator

Automatically generate beautiful, interactive documentation for your tRPC APIs

Features • Installation • Quick Start • API Reference • Examples

Why tRPC Docs Generator?

Building great APIs is one thing documenting AND testing them shouldn't be hard. tRPC Docs Generator automatically creates stunning, fully interactive documentation from your tRPC router with zero configuration. Not only does it document your API, but it also provides a built-in API testing playground right in the browser!

• ⚡️ Zero Config - Works out of the box with any tRPC v11 router
• 🧪 Interactive Testing - Test endpoints directly in the browser with live fetch requests
• 🎨 Beautiful UI - Modern, responsive design with smooth animations
• 🔍 Smart Schema Inference - Automatically extracts types from Zod validators
• 📝 Auto-Filled Examples - Pre-filled JSON with required fields, click to add optional fields
• 🔐 Header Management - Add custom headers (auth tokens, etc.), save and reuse them
• 🌐 Deploy Anywhere - Works with Express, Next.js, Cloudflare Workers, and more

📸 Screenshots

Features

🧪 Interactive API Testing Playground

THE FEATURE - Test your API endpoints directly from the documentation:

• Live Fetch Requests - Send real HTTP requests to your API with a single click
• Pre-filled Request Bodies - JSON automatically populated with required fields from schemas
• Optional Fields Manager - Click badges to instantly add optional fields to your request
• Custom Headers - Add authentication tokens, content-types, and custom headers
• Header Persistence - Save common headers (like auth tokens) and reuse them across endpoints
• Real-time Responses - See formatted JSON responses with status codes and error details
• Auto-Method Detection - Uses GET for queries, POST for mutations automatically
• Configurable Endpoint - Point to localhost, staging, or production with one setting
• Debug Information - Shows full request details (URL, headers, body) on errors

🎯 Automatic Schema Extraction

Powered by Zod's toJSONSchema() method, the generator automatically:

• Extracts input/output schemas from your procedures
• Generates realistic JSON examples with proper types
• Creates TypeScript type definitions
• Identifies optional vs required fields
• Handles complex types (unions, intersections, arrays, enums, records)

🎨 Modern, Beautiful UI

• Responsive Design - Perfect on desktop, tablet, and mobile
• Sidebar Navigation - Organized by route groups with smooth scrolling
• Expandable Cards - Click to reveal detailed schema information
• Type Badges - Visual indicators for query/mutation/subscription
• Auth & Role Badges - Clearly shows protected routes and permissions
• Deprecation Warnings - Highlights deprecated endpoints
• Dark-optimized Syntax - Code blocks with syntax highlighting

📊 Smart Grouping

Routes are automatically organized by:

• Tags - Group related endpoints together
• Procedure Type - Separate queries, mutations, and subscriptions
• Statistics - See route counts at a glance

Installation

npm install trpc-docs-generator

Requirements:

• @trpc/server ^11.0.0
• Zod v4+ (with toJSONSchema support)

Quick Start

Basic Usage

import { collectRoutes, generateDocsHtml } from 'trpc-docs-generator';
import { appRouter } from './router';

// 1. Collect route information from your router
const routes = collectRoutes(appRouter);

// 2. Generate HTML documentation
const html = generateDocsHtml(routes, {
  title: 'My API Documentation'
});

// 3. Serve it however you like
app.get('/docs', (req, res) => {
  res.send(html);
});

Example Router

import { initTRPC } from '@trpc/server';
import { z } from 'zod';

const t = initTRPC.meta<RouteMeta>().create();

export const appRouter = t.router({
  // Query with metadata
  getUser: t.procedure
    .meta({
      name: 'Get User',
      description: 'Retrieve user information by ID',
      tags: ['Users'],
      auth: true
    })
    .input(z.object({ userId: z.string() }))
    .output(
      z.object({
        id: z.string(),
        name: z.string(),
        email: z.string().email()
      })
    )
    .query(async ({ input }) => {
      // Implementation
    }),

  // Mutation example
  createPost: t.procedure
    .meta({
      name: 'Create Post',
      description: 'Create a new blog post',
      tags: ['Posts'],
      auth: true,
      roles: ['admin', 'editor']
    })
    .input(
      z.object({
        title: z.string(),
        content: z.string(),
        published: z.boolean().optional()
      })
    )
    .output(
      z.object({
        id: z.string(),
        title: z.string(),
        createdAt: z.string()
      })
    )
    .mutation(async ({ input }) => {
      // Implementation
    })
});

🧪 Testing Your API

Every endpoint in the generated docs includes a fully functional testing panel:

How to Test Endpoints

1. Open the docs - Navigate to your /docs endpoint
2. Configure base URL - Click the gear icon (top-right) and enter your tRPC endpoint (e.g., http://127.0.0.1:8787/trpc see Troubleshooting)
3. Click any endpoint - Expand the route card to see the testing panel
4. Edit the request - Pre-filled JSON is ready, modify as needed or click badges to add optional fields
5. Add headers (optional) - Add auth tokens or custom headers
6. Click "Send Request" - See real-time response!

Header Management

// Add custom headers for authenticated endpoints:
// 1. Click "Add Header" button
// 2. Enter: Authorization | Bearer your-token-here
// 3. Click "Save Headers" to persist for future requests
// 4. Use "Load Saved" on other endpoints to reuse headers

Response Handling

The testing panel shows:

• ✅ Success responses - Green badge with formatted JSON
• ❌ Error responses - Red badge with error details and full request debug info
• 🔍 Network errors - Clear error messages with troubleshooting tips

Deployment Examples

Express.js

import express from 'express';
import { collectRoutes, generateDocsHtml } from 'trpc-docs-generator';
import { appRouter } from './router';

const app = express();

app.get('/docs', (req, res) => {
  const routes = collectRoutes(appRouter);
  const html = generateDocsHtml(routes, {
    title: 'My API Docs'
  });
  res.send(html);
});

app.listen(3000);

Next.js (App Router)

// app/docs/route.ts
import { collectRoutes, generateDocsHtml } from 'trpc-docs-generator';
import { appRouter } from '@/server/router';

export async function GET() {
  const routes = collectRoutes(appRouter);
  const html = generateDocsHtml(routes, {
    title: 'API Documentation'
  });

  return new Response(html, {
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' }
  });
}

// Users accessing the docs will need to configure the base URL
// Example: http://localhost:3000/api/trpc (if your tRPC is at /api/trpc)

Cloudflare Workers

import { fetchRequestHandler } from '@trpc/server/adapters/fetch';
import { collectRoutes, generateDocsHtml } from 'trpc-docs-generator';
import { appRouter } from './router';

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request): Promise<Response> {
    const url = new URL(request.url);

    // Serve docs
    if (url.pathname === '/docs') {
      const routes = collectRoutes(appRouter);
      const html = generateDocsHtml(routes, {
        title: 'API Documentation'
      });
      return new Response(html, {
        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' }
      });
    }

    // Handle tRPC requests
    return fetchRequestHandler({
      endpoint: '/trpc',
      req: request,
      router: appRouter
    });
  }
};

Troubleshooting

Testing Panel Issues

"Failed to fetch" or CORS errors:

• Ensure the base URL hostname matches exactly how you're accessing the docs
  • If docs are at http://localhost:3000/docs, use http://localhost:3000/trpc
  • Don't mix localhost and 127.0.0.1 - this causes origin mismatch
• Verify your tRPC server has CORS configured to allow requests from the docs origin
• Check browser console for specific CORS error messages

404 Not Found:

• Verify the complete mount path is included in base URL
  • If tRPC is at /api/trpc, use http://localhost:3000/api/trpc, not just http://localhost:3000
• Ensure your tRPC server is actually running
• Test the endpoint directly with curl or Postman to verify it works

Base URL not saving:

• Check browser console for localStorage errors
• Ensure you're using a modern browser with localStorage support
• Try clearing browser cache and reconfiguring

Invalid JSON errors:

• Ensure proper JSON syntax with double quotes for keys and string values
• Use the browser's JSON formatter or validator to check your input
• The testing panel validates JSON before sending

API Reference

collectRoutes(router: AnyRouter): RouteInfo[]

Collects route information from a tRPC router by traversing all procedures.

Parameters:

• router - Your tRPC router instance

Returns:

• Array of RouteInfo objects containing:
  • path - Route path (e.g., 'users.getById')
  • type - Procedure type ('query' | 'mutation' | 'subscription')
  • meta - Metadata object (if provided)
  • inputSchema - JSON schema for input (if Zod validator exists)
  • outputSchema - JSON schema for output (if Zod validator exists)
  • inputExample - Auto-generated JSON example of input
  • outputExample - Auto-generated JSON example of output
  • inputTypeScript - TypeScript type representation of input
  • outputTypeScript - TypeScript type representation of output
  • inputOptionalFields - List of optional input fields with examples
  • outputOptionalFields - List of optional output fields with examples

generateDocsHtml(routes: RouteInfo[], options?: DocsGeneratorOptions): string

Generates a complete HTML documentation page from route information.

Parameters:

• routes - Array of route information from collectRoutes()
• options - Optional configuration:
  • title - Page title (default: 'API Documentation')

Returns:

• Complete HTML string ready to serve

RouteMeta Type

Type definition for route metadata (use with initTRPC.meta<RouteMeta>()):

type RouteMeta = {
  /** Human-readable name for the route */
  name?: string;
  /** Description of what the route does */
  description?: string;
  /** Tags for grouping routes */
  tags?: string[];
  /** Whether this route is deprecated */
  deprecated?: boolean;
  /** Whether this route requires authentication */
  auth?: boolean;
  /** Roles allowed to access this route */
  roles?: string[];
};

Examples

Full Featured Router

import { initTRPC } from '@trpc/server';
import { z } from 'zod';
import type { RouteMeta } from 'trpc-docs-generator';

const t = initTRPC.meta<RouteMeta>().create();

export const appRouter = t.router({
  // Public endpoint
  health: t.procedure
    .meta({
      name: 'Health Check',
      description: 'Check if the API is running',
      tags: ['System']
    })
    .output(z.object({ status: z.literal('ok') }))
    .query(() => ({ status: 'ok' as const })),

  // Protected endpoint
  users: t.router({
    list: t.procedure
      .meta({
        name: 'List Users',
        description: 'Get a paginated list of users',
        tags: ['Users'],
        auth: true,
        roles: ['admin']
      })
      .input(
        z.object({
          page: z.number().min(1).default(1),
          limit: z.number().min(1).max(100).default(10),
          search: z.string().optional()
        })
      )
      .output(
        z.object({
          users: z.array(
            z.object({
              id: z.string(),
              name: z.string(),
              email: z.string().email()
            })
          ),
          total: z.number(),
          page: z.number(),
          totalPages: z.number()
        })
      )
      .query(async ({ input }) => {
        // Implementation
      }),

    // Deprecated endpoint
    getByEmail: t.procedure
      .meta({
        name: 'Get User by Email',
        description: 'Retrieve user by email address',
        tags: ['Users'],
        deprecated: true,
        auth: true
      })
      .input(z.object({ email: z.string().email() }))
      .output(
        z.object({
          id: z.string(),
          name: z.string(),
          email: z.string()
        })
      )
      .query(async ({ input }) => {
        // Implementation
      })
  })
});

export type AppRouter = typeof appRouter;

Complex Schemas

The generator handles complex Zod schemas:

t.procedure.input(
  z.object({
    // Unions
    status: z.union([z.literal('active'), z.literal('inactive')]),
    // Enums
    role: z.enum(['admin', 'user', 'guest']),
    // Intersections
    profile: z.object({ name: z.string() }).and(z.object({ age: z.number() })),
    // Arrays
    tags: z.array(z.string()),
    // Nested objects
    settings: z.object({
      notifications: z.object({
        email: z.boolean(),
        push: z.boolean()
      })
    }),
    // Records (key-value maps)
    metadata: z.record(z.string(), z.string()).optional()
    // Alternative: record with any string value
    // metadata: z.record(z.string()).optional(),
  })
);

How It Works

1. Route Collection - collectRoutes() traverses your tRPC router's internal structure to extract all procedures and their metadata

2. Schema Inference - Uses Zod's toJSONSchema() method (Zod v4+) to convert Zod validators into JSON Schema format

3. Example Generation - Automatically generates:

   • Realistic JSON examples from schemas
   • TypeScript type definitions
   • Lists of optional fields

4. HTML Generation - Creates a beautiful, self-contained HTML page with:

   • Embedded CSS (no external dependencies)
   • Interactive JavaScript for expandable cards and navigation
   • Responsive design
   • Organized sections and groups

Best Practices

1. Add Rich Metadata

t.procedure.meta({
  name: 'Create User', // Clear, readable name
  description: 'Creates a new user account with the provided information',
  tags: ['Users', 'Authentication'], // Logical grouping
  auth: true, // Show auth requirement
  roles: ['admin'] // Show role requirements
});

2. Mark Deprecated Routes

t.procedure.meta({
  deprecated: true,
  description: 'Use users.getById instead'
});

3. Group Related Routes with Tags

const appRouter = t.router({
  // All auth-related routes
  login: t.procedure.meta({ tags: ['Authentication'] }),
  logout: t.procedure.meta({ tags: ['Authentication'] }),
  register: t.procedure.meta({ tags: ['Authentication'] }),

  // All user-related routes
  getUser: t.procedure.meta({ tags: ['Users'] }),
  updateUser: t.procedure.meta({ tags: ['Users'] }),
  deleteUser: t.procedure.meta({ tags: ['Users'] })
});

TypeScript Support

Fully typed with TypeScript! Import types for better developer experience:

import type { RouteMeta, RouteInfo, DocsGeneratorOptions } from 'trpc-docs-generator';

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT © Lior Cohen

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_{Built with ❤️ for the tRPC community}