/scalar

Beautiful API references from Swagger/OpenAPI files ✨

Primary LanguageVueMIT LicenseMIT

Scalar API Reference

CI Release Contributors GitHub License Discord

Generate interactive API documentations from Swagger files. Try our Demo

Screenshot of an API Reference

Features

  • Uses Swagger/OpenAPI spec files
  • Request examples for a ton of languages + frameworks
  • Has an integrated API client
  • Edit your Swagger files with a live preview
  • Doesn’t look like it’s 2011

Scalar Townhall on Thu Feb, 1st in Discord

Join us to see upcoming features, discuss the roadmap and chat about APIs with us. 💬

Table of Contents

Getting Started

From a CDN

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>API Reference</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta
      name="viewport"
      content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
    <style>
      body {
        margin: 0;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <!-- Add your own OpenAPI/Swagger spec file URL here: -->
    <!-- Note: this includes our proxy, you can remove the following line if you do not need it -->
    <!-- data-proxy-url="https://api.scalar.com/request-proxy" -->
    <script
      id="api-reference"
      data-url="https://petstore3.swagger.io/api/v3/openapi.json"
      data-proxy-url="https://api.scalar.com/request-proxy"></script>
    <!-- You can also set a full configuration object like this -->
    <!-- easier for nested objects -->
    <script>
      var configuration = {
        theme: 'purple',
      }

      var apiReference = document.getElementById('api-reference')
      apiReference.dataset.configuration = JSON.stringify(configuration)
    </script>
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@scalar/api-reference"></script>
  </body>
</html>

You can also use the following syntax to directly pass an OpenAPI spec:

<script
  id="api-reference"
  type="application/json">
  { … }
</script>

If you’d like to add a request proxy for the API client (to avoid CORS issues):

<script
  id="api-reference"
  type="application/json"
  data-proxy-url="https://api.scalar.com/request-proxy">
  { … }
</script>

With Vue.js

The API Reference is built in Vue.js. If you’re working in Vue.js, too, you can directly use our Vue components. Just install them:

npm install @scalar/api-reference

And import the ApiReference component to your app:

<script setup lang="ts">
import { ApiReference } from '@scalar/api-reference'
</script>

<template>
  <ApiReference />
</template>

You can pass props to customize the API reference.

With React

The API Reference package is written in Vue. That shouldn’t stop you from using it in React, though. You can use veaury to load the <APIReference /> component in React:

import { ApiReference as VueComponent } from '@scalar/api-reference'
import { applyVueInReact } from 'veaury'

const ApiReference = applyVueInReact(VueComponent)

function App() {
  return (
    <>
      <ApiReference configuration={{ isEditable: true }} />
    </>
  )
}

export default App

With Nextjs

Our Next.js handler makes it easy to render a reference, just add it to an Api route handler:

// app/reference/route.ts
import { ApiReference } from '@scalar/nextjs-api-reference'

const config = {
  spec: {
    url: '/swagger.json',
  },
}

export const GET = ApiReference(config)

Read more: @scalar/nextjs-api-reference

With Fastify

Our fastify plugin makes it so easy to render a reference, there’s no excuse to not have a documentation for your API.

await fastify.register(require('@scalar/fastify-api-reference'), {
  routePrefix: '/reference',
  configuration: {
    spec: () => fastify.swagger(),
  },
})

Actually, it’s executing the fastify.swagger() call by default (if available). So that’s all you need to add:

await fastify.register(require('@scalar/fastify-api-reference'), {
  routePrefix: '/reference',
})

Read more: @scalar/fastify-api-reference

With Platformatic

Good news: If you’re using a recent version of Platformatic, the Scalar API reference is installed and configured automatically.

With Hono

Our Hono middleware makes it so easy to render a reference:

import { apiReference } from '@scalar/hono-api-reference'

app.get(
  '/reference',
  apiReference({
    spec: {
      url: '/swagger.json',
    },
  }),
)

Read more: @scalar/hono-api-reference

With ElysiaJS

The @elysiajs/swagger plugin uses our API reference by default.

import { swagger } from '@elysiajs/swagger'
import { Elysia } from 'elysia'

new Elysia()
  .use(swagger())
  .get('/', () => 'hi')
  .post('/hello', () => 'world')
  .listen(8080)

// open http://localhost:8080/swagger

Read more about @elysiajs/swagger

With Express

Our Express middleware makes it so easy to render a reference:

import { apiReference } from '@scalar/express-api-reference'

app.use(
  '/reference',
  apiReference({
    spec: {
      content: OpenApiSpecification,
    },
  }),
)

Read more: @scalar/express-api-reference

With NestJS

Our NestJS middleware makes it so easy to render a reference:

import { apiReference } from '@scalar/nestjs-api-reference'

app.use(
  '/reference',
  apiReference({
    spec: {
      url: '/swagger.json',
    },
  }),
)

Read more: @scalar/nestjs-api-reference

With Laravel

There’s a wonderful package to generate OpenAPI files for Laravel already. Just set the type to external_laravel (for Blade) or external_static (for HTML) and theme to scalar:

<?php
// config/scribe.php

return [
  // …
  'type' => 'external_laravel',
  'theme' => 'scalar',
  // …
];

With Rust

There’s a wonderful package to generate OpenAPI files for Rust already. Just set the api_route to use Scalar to get started:

use aide::{
    axum::{
        routing::{get_with},
        ApiRouter, IntoApiResponse,
    },
    openapi::OpenApi,
    scalar::Scalar,
};
...
    let router: ApiRouter = ApiRouter::new()
        .api_route_with(
            "/",
            get_with(
                Scalar::new("/docs/private/api.json")
                    .with_title("Aide Axum")
                    .axum_handler(),
                |op| op.description("This documentation page."),
            ),
            |p| p.security_requirement("ApiKey"),
        )
        ...

Hosted API Reference

Wait, this is open source and you can do whatever you want. But if you want to add a nice, customizable guide, collaborate with your team and have everything served through a CDN, create an account on scalar.com.

Configuration

To customize the behavior of the API Reference, you can use the following configuration options:

  • isEditable: Whether the Swagger editor should be shown.
  • spec.content: Directly pass an OpenAPI/Swagger spec.
  • spec.url: Pass the URL of a spec file (JSON or YAML).
  • spec.preparsedContent: Preprocess specs with @scalar/swagger-parser and directly pass the result.
  • proxyUrl: Use a proxy to send requests to other origins.
  • darkMode: Set dark mode on or off (light mode)
  • layout: The layout to use, either of modern or classic (see #layouts).
  • theme: The them to use (see #themes).
  • showSidebar: Whether the sidebar should be shown.
  • customCss: Pass custom CSS directly to the component.
  • searchHotKey: Key used with CNTRL/CMD to open the search modal.
  • metaData: Configure meta information for the page.
  • hiddenClients: List of httpsnippet clients to hide from the clients menu, by default hides Unirest, pass [] to show all clients.
  • onSpecUpdate: Listen to spec changes with a callback function.

For detailed information on how to use these options, refer to the Configuration Section.

Layouts

We support two layouts at the moment, a modern layout (the default) and a Swagger UI inspired classic layout (we jazzed it up a bit though).

layouts

Themes

You don’t like the color scheme? We’ve prepared some themes for you:

/* theme?: 'alternate' | 'default' | 'moon' | 'purple' | 'solarized' |
'bluePlanet' | 'saturn' | 'kepler' | 'mars' | 'deepSpace' | 'none' */
<ApiReference :configuration="{ theme: 'moon' }" />

ℹ️ The default theme is … the default theme. If you want to make sure no theme is applied, pass none.

Advanced: Styling

Overwrite our CSS variables. We won’t judge.

:root {
  --theme-font: 'Comic Sans MS', 'Comic Sans', cursive;
}

We’re using the default- prefix for our variables to not overwrite your variables. You can use all variables without a prefix.

/* ✅ Good (without `default` prefix) */
--theme-font: 'Comic Sans MS', 'Comic Sans', cursive;
/* ❌ Bad (with `default` prefix) */
--default-theme-font: 'Comic Sans MS', 'Comic Sans', cursive;

Overwrite our night mode and day mode variables to build your own themes. Here are some of the basic variables to get you started:

basic-scalar-variables

.light-mode {
  --theme-color-1: #121212;
  --theme-color-2: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);
  --theme-color-3: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
  --theme-color-accent: #0a85d1;
  --theme-background-1: #fff;
  --theme-background-2: #f6f5f4;
  --theme-background-3: #f1ede9;
  --theme-background-accent: #5369d20f;
  --theme-border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08);
}
.dark-mode {
  --theme-color-1: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.81);
  --theme-color-2: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.443);
  --theme-color-3: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.282);
  --theme-color-accent: #8ab4f8;
  --theme-background-1: #202020;
  --theme-background-2: #272727;
  --theme-background-3: #333333;
  --theme-background-accent: #8ab4f81f;
}

Or get more advanced by styling our sidebar!

scalar-sidebar-variables

.light-mode .sidebar {
  --sidebar-background-1: var(--theme-background-1);
  --sidebar-item-hover-color: currentColor;
  --sidebar-item-hover-background: var(--theme-background-2);
  --sidebar-item-active-background: var(--theme-background-2);
  --sidebar-border-color: var(--theme-border-color);
  --sidebar-color-1: var(--theme-color-1);
  --sidebar-color-2: var(--theme-color-2);
  --sidebar-color-active: var(--theme-color-2);
  --sidebar-search-background: var(--theme-background-2);
  --sidebar-search-border-color: var(--theme-border-color);
  --sidebar-search--color: var(--theme-color-3);
}
.dark-mode .sidebar {
  --sidebar-background-1: var(--theme-background-1);
  --sidebar-item-hover-color: currentColor;
  --sidebar-item-hover-background: var(--theme-background-2);
  --sidebar-item-active-background: var(--theme-background-2);
  --sidebar-border-color: var(--theme-border-color);
  --sidebar-color-1: var(--theme-color-1);
  --sidebar-color-2: var(--theme-color-2);
  --sidebar-color-active: var(--theme-color-2);
  --sidebar-search-background: var(--theme-background-2);
  --sidebar-search-border-color: var(--theme-border-color);
  --sidebar-search--color: var(--theme-color-3);
}

Community

We are API nerds. You too? Let’s chat on Discord: https://discord.gg/8HeZcRGPFS

Packages

This repository contains all our open source projects and there’s definitely more to discover.

Package Description
@scalar/api-client-proxy API request proxy
@scalar/api-client API testing client
@scalar/api-reference beautiful API references
@scalar/cli CLI to work with OpenAPI files
@scalar/echo-server a server that replies with the request data
@scalar/express-api-reference Express plugin
@scalar/fastify-api-reference Fastify plugin
@scalar/hono-api-reference Hono middleware
@scalar/nestjs-api-reference NestJS middleware
@scalar/nextjs-api-reference Next.js adapter
@scalar/swagger-editor editor tailored to write OpenAPI files
@scalar/swagger-parser parse OpenAPI files

Contributors

hanspagel
hanspagel 		tmastrom
tmastrom 		marclave
marclave 		hwkr
hwkr 		cameronrohani
cameronrohani 		amritk
amritk
geoffgscott
geoffgscott 		mcollina
mcollina 		Mohib834
Mohib834 		ATREAY
ATREAY 		mouhannad-sh
mouhannad-sh 		dunklesToast
dunklesToast
FotieMConstant
FotieMConstant 		Chinlinlee
Chinlinlee 		sinh117801
sinh117801 		dotfortun
dotfortun 		SebastianBienert
SebastianBienert 		Mason-Little
Mason-Little
ShadiestGoat
ShadiestGoat 		IHIutch
IHIutch 		jonataw
jonataw 		danp
danp 		chrislearn
chrislearn 		sigpwned
sigpwned

Contributions are welcome! Read CONTRIBUTING.

License

The source code in this repository is licensed under MIT.