openapi-generators / openapi-generators/openapi-python-client

Parameter-level descriptions are ignored in Python SDK generation; only schema descriptions are used

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Description

Describe the bug
When generating a Python client, parameter documentation is taken from the parameter schema’s description, while the parameter object’s top-level description is ignored or not preferred.

OpenAPI defines description on the Parameter Object (“A brief description of the parameter…”) and separately allows description on schemas via the Schema Object / JSON Schema annotation model. These fields describe different layers of the API, but the current Python generation appears to only use the schema-level description for parameter docs. 

OpenAPI Spec File

openapi: 3.1.0
info:
  title: Description precedence repro
  version: 1.0.0

paths:
  /tasks/export:
    get:
      operationId: export_tasks
      summary: Export tasks
      parameters:
        - in: query
          name: since
          required: false
          description: Only include tasks changed after this timestamp.
          schema:
            type: integer
            format: int64
            description: Unix timestamp in milliseconds.
      responses:
        "200":
          description: OK

Desktop (please complete the following information):

  • OS: macOS Tahoe 26.3
  • Python Version: 3.10
  • openapi-python-client version: 0.28.2

Additional context
Expected behavior:

For simple parameters, generated method argument docs should prefer parameter.description, optionally appending schema.description as secondary value-format detail.

Example desired output:

def export_tasks(self, since: int | None = None) -> Response:
    """
    Args:
        since: Only include tasks changed after this timestamp.
               Unix timestamp in milliseconds.
    """

For reusable rich schemas, the split should be:

  • method argument docs from parameter.description
  • model/type docs from schema.description
  • field docs from property description

This would preserve the distinction OpenAPI makes between operation-level parameter semantics and reusable type semantics. This seems to be true for response bodies too.

Happy to work on this myself!

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No source file or test is named in the issue. Start by generating a Python client from the provided OpenAPI 3.1 repro and inspect the generated method argument documentation. Done means parameter.description is used for the argument docs while schema descriptions remain available for type or value-format details.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
openapi, python
Domain
api, tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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