oxidecomputer / oxidecomputer/typify

`anyOf` generation is wrong and often cannot be deserialized

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Dominant language
Rust
Stars
898
Forks
114
Avg merge
4h 18m
Merged PRs (30d)
14

Description

The current handling of anyOf is pretty simple:

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct AnyOfType {
    #[serde(flatten)]
    subtype_0: Option<SubType0>,
    #[serde(flatten)]
    subtype_1: Option<SubType1>,
...
}

This seemed reasonable--and still may... until you think about it. First, an anyOf means that at least one of the subschemas must be valid. This structure does nothing to enforce that constraint. Second, the subtypes might have overlap or even conflicts which means that deserialization could fail.

Instead I propose that we treat an anyOf like a oneOf (i.e. an enum) where we take the power set of subtypes:

anyOf: [a, b, c]
oneOf: [a, b, c, { allOf: [a, b] }, { allOf: [a, c] }, { allOf: [b, c] }, { allOf: [a, b, c] }]

Note that some of those allOf combinations might be invalid in which case they would be ignored (and would therefore not turn into an enum variant); others might be redundant in which case they can also be ignored. Currently, we check if all variants are mutually exclusive and can therefore be trivially treated as a oneOf (i.e. [a, b, c]); this would fall out as a consequence of attempting to resolve the allOf subschemas.

The resulting type would look something like this:

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
#[serde(untagged)]
pub enum AnyOfType {
    Variant0: TypeA,
    Variant1: TypeB,
    Variant2: TypeC,
    Variant3: TypeAB,
...
    Variant7: TypeABC,
}

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start from the current anyOf handling that generates a flattened struct with optional subtypes, then trace how overlapping and conflicting subschemas are resolved. Define the valid subtype combinations and ensure generated types enforce that at least one subschema matches while remaining deserializable. Done means anyOf behavior covers valid combinations and avoids invalid or redundant variants.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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