Swagger Docs for Flask App

[pyrsuit]

I would like to create Swagger Docs for a Flask application. I am currently discovering the options. I imagine having something like OpenAPI, for example in FastAPI. I have googled if there is an extension for Flask. While I found some they didn't seem to be actively maintained. What is the recommended option?

[miguelgrinberg]

APIFairy is maintained. Disclaimer: I'm the author. :)

[frainfreeze]

I have been intending to try it for years. I'm wondering - how does flask-security fit with APIFairy?

[miguelgrinberg]

APIFairy can automatically generate OpenAPI authentication when you use Flask-HTTPAuth (which, another disclaimer, is also mine!). If you use other authentication extensions then the generated OpenAPI will not include auth, but there is a generic callback that gives you a chance to make custom edits to the generated OpenAPI which you can use to insert the auth manually. Hope this helps!

[davidism]

These are actively maintained projects I'm aware of:

• Flask-Pydantic is part of Pallets-Eco and is actively maintained by the community. (But it doesn't generate openapi yet)
• Quart-Schema uses Quart (async Flask) and supports Pydantic and Marshmallow serializers.
• APIFlask
• Flask-Smorest
• Flask-Rebar

These two don't seem as active, but still have fairly recent commits:

• Flask-Resty uses marshmallow
• uapi uses cattrs

I'll also note that beyond keeping compatibility with Flask/Werkzeug, Marshmallow/Pydantic, or OpenAPI changes, I'd expect most of these libraries to be somewhat quiet. If a library works and has the features you need, don't discard it only because of a lack of recent commits.

[frainfreeze]

@davidism would Flask-Pydantic require manually assembling the schema (ie OpenAPI Specification)? As far I can see it does not offer auto-generated API documentation?

[davidism]

I don't know, that's something you'd need to ask them. Perhaps a good feature request or PR for someone to contribute if it's not there yet.

[frainfreeze]

Of course. However, I don't see how it makes sense listing project that doesn't have to do with OPs question as an option...

[davidism]

Ah, sorry about that. I conflated "validates request data" with "produces openapi".

Just added Flask-Rebar to the list as well.