JSON:API Serde

Appearance

Getting Started ​

Why use this library? ​

Working with the JSON:API specification can be tedious and error-prone, especially when building consistent and reusable serialization logic across a complex application.

@jsonapi-serde/server solves this by providing:

  • ✅ Type-safe serialization – Define how your entities map to JSON:API resource objects with full TypeScript support.
  • 🔁 Composable and fluent API – Add serializers using a chainable builder, then generate a single serialize() function.
  • 🔍 Fine-grained control – Handle sparse fieldsets, compound documents (included), links, meta, and more with ease.
  • 🧩 Framework-agnostic design – Integrates with any HTTP framework. Helpers and adapters are available for supported frameworks.
  • 📦 Small and focused – The server package is minimal, focused only on serialization, and can be extended as needed.

Whether you're exposing a REST API or transforming internal data structures into JSON:API documents, this library gives you the flexibility and structure you need — without getting in your way.

Installation ​

Prerequisites ​

  • Node.js version 20 or higher.
  • TypeScript version 5 or higher, though you could use this library with pure JavaScript (not recommended).
  • ESM-only (no CommonJS support)
sh
$ npm add @jsonapi-serde/server zod
sh
$ pnpm add @jsonapi-serde/server zod
sh
$ yarn add @jsonapi-serde/server zod
sh
$ bun add @jsonapi-serde/server zod

NOTE

JSON:API serde is an ESM-only project. Don't use require() to import it, and make sure your nearest package.json contains "type": "module", or change the file extension of your relevant files to .mjs/.mts.

What's included? ​

The server package provides:

  • 🔄 Serialization: Convert application objects to JSON:API-compliant documents.
  • 📥 Request Parsing: Validate and extract data from incoming requests.
  • ❓ Query Parsing: Parse and interpret query parameters like fields, include, and sort.
  • ⚙️ Type-safe, composable APIs built on zod.

Next Steps ​