OI Laravel TypeScript Generator

A Laravel package that automatically generates TypeScript interfaces from your Eloquent models, complete with relationships, custom casts, and DataObjects support.

Features

Automatic Interface Generation: Converts Eloquent models to TypeScript interfaces
Relationship Support: Handles all Laravel relationship types (HasOne, HasMany, BelongsTo, etc.)
Custom Casts: Supports Laravel custom casts and automatically detects DataObjects
DTO Support: Emits interfaces for spatie/laravel-data style DTOs (no dependency required), with enum literal unions and nested DTOs
PHPDoc Support: Reads PHPDoc annotations for complex types
Watch Mode: Monitor your models directory and regenerate on changes
Namespace Filters: Exclude third-party models entirely, or promote them to extension interfaces
Smart Primary Key Types: UUID / ULID keys are typed as string, integer keys as number
Configurable: Extensive configuration options for customization
JSON-LD Support: Optional support for JSON-LD data structures

Architecture

This package uses a modular architecture with clear separation of concerns, organized in two main pipelines:

Pipeline 1: Eloquent Analysis

Eloquent: Facade for model analysis and schema generation
ModelDiscovery: Discovers all Eloquent models in the application
TypeExtractor: Extracts type information from models
CastTypeResolver: Resolves custom Laravel casts to TypeScript types
RelationshipResolver: Detects and extracts relationship metadata
DataObjectAnalyzer: Analyzes PHP DataObject classes
PhpToTypeScriptConverter: Converts PHP types to TypeScript
SchemaBuilder: Orchestrates schema building for all models

Pipeline 2: TypeScript Generation

Convert: Main orchestrator coordinating the conversion process
TypeScriptTypeConverter: Handles schema to TypeScript type conversion
DataObjectProcessor: Processes PHP DataObjects and generates their interfaces
DataClassResolver / DataClassAnalyzer / DataClassProcessor: Discover, analyze and emit spatie/laravel-data style DTOs
ModelInterfaceGenerator: Generates TypeScript interfaces for Laravel models
ImportManager: Manages TypeScript import statements
JsonLdGenerator: Generates JSON-LD support interfaces

For detailed architecture documentation, see ARCHITECTURE.md.

Requirements

PHP 8.2+
Laravel 11.0+, 12.0+, or 13.0+

Installation

composer require oi-lab/oi-laravel-ts

Local Development

For local development, add this to your main project's composer.json:

{
    "repositories": [
        {
            "type": "path",
            "url": "./packages/oi-lab/oi-laravel-ts"
        }
    ]
}

Then:

composer require oi-lab/oi-laravel-ts

Configuration

Publish the configuration file:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=oi-laravel-ts-config

This creates config/oi-laravel-ts.php with the following options:

return [
    // Output path for generated TypeScript file
    'output_path' => resource_path('js/types/interfaces.ts'),

    // Include _count fields for relationships
    'with_counts' => true,

    // Enable JSON-LD support
    'with_json_ld' => false,

    // Follow relationships to generate interfaces for referenced models
    // (incl. models attached through traits, e.g. spatie/laravel-permission)
    'discover_related_models' => true,

    // Add every Eloquent model of these namespaces to the schema, as if in app/Models
    'included_model_namespaces' => [],

    // Exclude models in these namespaces entirely (incl. relation fields pointing to them)
    'excluded_namespaces' => [],

    // Models in these namespaces emit I{Name}Extended extends I{Name} interfaces
    'extended_namespaces' => [],

    // Save intermediate schema.json for debugging
    'save_schema' => false,

    // Namespaces holding spatie/laravel-data style DTOs to emit as I{ClassName}
    'data_namespaces' => [],

    // Give a DTO a distinct interface name when two share a short class name
    'data_aliases' => [],

    // 'null': `?` means "key may be absent", `| null` means "value may be null"
    // 'optional': legacy — nullable or defaulted properties all render as `?`
    'data_nullable_style' => 'null',

    // When true, a model mapped to a DTO no longer emits its own Eloquent interface
    'data_replaces_model' => false,

    // Explicit model => DTO map (otherwise inferred from the DTO's fromModel() factory)
    'data_for_model' => [],

    // Define specific types for model properties
    'props_with_types' => [],

    // Add custom properties to models
    'custom_props' => [
        'Organization' => [
            'uuid' => 'string',
        ],
    ],
];

Usage

Basic Generation

Generate TypeScript interfaces from your models:

php artisan oi:gen-ts

This will scan all models in app/Models and generate a TypeScript file at the configured output path.

Watch Mode

Automatically regenerate when models change:

php artisan oi:gen-ts --watch

Example Output

Given a Laravel model:

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class User extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['name', 'email', 'bio'];

    protected $casts = [
        'email_verified_at' => 'datetime',
    ];

    public function posts(): HasMany
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Post::class);
    }
}

The package generates:

export interface IUser {
    id: number;
    name: string;
    email: string;
    bio: string;
    email_verified_at?: string;
    created_at: string;
    updated_at: string;
    posts?: IPost[];
    posts_count?: number;
}

Advanced Features

Custom Properties

Add properties that aren't in your database schema:

// config/oi-laravel-ts.php
'custom_props' => [
    'User' => [
        'full_name' => 'string',
        'avatar_url' => 'string',
    ],
],

DataObject Support

The package automatically detects and converts custom DataObjects:

// Your model
class Page extends Model
{
    protected $casts = [
        'metadata' => MetadataCast::class,
    ];
}

// Your Cast
class MetadataCast implements CastsAttributes
{
    public function get($model, string $key, $value, array $attributes): Metadata
    {
        return Metadata::fromArray(json_decode($value, true));
    }
}

// Generated TypeScript
export interface IMetadata {
    title: string;
    description?: string;
}

export interface IPage {
    id: number;
    metadata?: IMetadata | null;
}

DTO Support (spatie/laravel-data)

Register the namespaces holding your Data Transfer Objects and every DTO is emitted as an I{ClassName} interface. Detection is structural — no dependency on spatie/laravel-data is required:

'data_namespaces' => [
    'App\\Data',
],

// App\Data\Knowledge\KnowledgeData
class KnowledgeData extends \Spatie\LaravelData\Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public readonly string $id,
        public readonly KnowledgeState $state,   // backed enum
        public readonly ?KnowledgeSourceData $source,   // nested DTO
        /** @var KnowledgeTagData[]|null */
        public readonly ?array $tags,
        public readonly string|Optional $slug,   // may be absent from the payload
        public readonly bool $isActive = true,
    ) {}

    public static function fromModel(Knowledge $knowledge): self { /* ... */ }
}

export interface IKnowledgeData {
    id: string;
    state: 'draft' | 'published' | 'archived';
    source: IKnowledgeSourceData | null;
    tags: IKnowledgeTagData[] | null;
    slug?: string;
    isActive: boolean;
}

Property names are kept verbatim (camelCase), backed enums become literal unions, nested DTOs become I{Name}, and typed arrays declared via a property @var Foo[] annotation become IFoo[].

The interface describes the JSON the DTO produces, so ? and | null mean different things: ? marks a key that may be absent (an Optional / Lazy property), | null a key that is always present but may hold null. A default value makes nothing optional. See data_nullable_style to fall back to the legacy rendering.

By default DTO interfaces coexist with the Eloquent model interfaces. To make a DTO the single source of truth for its model — suppressing the model's own I{Model} interface — enable data_replaces_model. The model is inferred from the DTO's fromModel() factory, or set explicitly via data_for_model:

'data_replaces_model' => true,
'data_for_model' => [
    App\Models\Knowledge::class => App\Data\Knowledge\KnowledgeData::class,
],

Note: with data_replaces_model enabled, a relationship on another model that points to a replaced model will reference an interface that is no longer generated.

Namespace Filters

Exclude third-party or package models from the schema entirely:

'excluded_namespaces' => [
    'OiLab\\Prestashop\\Models',
],

Models in these namespaces are dropped — including when reached through a relationship — and any relationship field pointing to them is stripped from other interfaces.

Alternatively, turn package model variants into extension interfaces:

'extended_namespaces' => [
    'OiLab\\Prestashop\\Extended\\Models',
],

For each extended model whose short name matches a base model in the schema, the generator emits:

export interface IUserExtended extends IUser {
    prestashop_id: number;
}

UUID / ULID Primary Keys

Primary key types are resolved automatically. Models using HasUuids, HasUlids, or declaring $keyType = 'string' generate id: string instead of id: number:

// Standard auto-increment model
export interface IPost {
    id: number;
    // ...
}

// UUID model (uses HasUuids trait or $keyType = 'string')
export interface IOrder {
    id: string;
    // ...
}

Import External Types

Reference external TypeScript types:

'custom_props' => [
    'User' => [
        'settings' => '@/types/settings|UserSettings',
    ],
],

Generates:

import { UserSettings } from '@/types/settings';

export interface IUser {
    settings: UserSettings;
}

Examples

Complete Workflow

Define your models with relationships and casts
Configure custom properties if needed
Run the generator:

php artisan oi:gen-ts

Use the generated interfaces in your TypeScript code:

import { IUser, IPost } from '@/types/interfaces';

const user: IUser = await fetchUser();
const posts: IPost[] = user.posts || [];

Integration with Inertia.js

import { PageProps } from '@inertiajs/core';
import { IUser } from '@/types/interfaces';

interface Props extends PageProps {
    user: IUser;
}

export default function Dashboard({ user }: Props) {
    // TypeScript knows all User properties
    console.log(user.email);
}

Testing

This package includes comprehensive test coverage with 142 tests and 344 assertions.

Run Tests

# Run all tests
vendor/bin/pest

# Run specific test suite
vendor/bin/pest tests/Unit
vendor/bin/pest tests/Feature

# Run with coverage
vendor/bin/pest --coverage

Test Coverage

✅ Type conversion (PHP → TypeScript)
✅ Model analysis and schema building
✅ Relationship detection (HasMany, BelongsTo, etc.)
✅ Custom cast resolution
✅ DataObject handling
✅ DTO (spatie/laravel-data) generation, enums and nested DTOs
✅ TypeScript interface generation
✅ Namespace exclusion and extension interfaces
✅ UUID / ULID primary key type resolution
✅ Integration tests for full pipeline

For detailed testing documentation, see TESTING.md.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

When contributing:

Write tests for new features
Ensure all tests pass: vendor/bin/pest
Follow existing code style
Update documentation as needed

License

This package is open-source software licensed under the MIT license.

Credits

Olivier Lacombe - Creator and maintainer

Olivier is a Product & Technology Director based in Montpellier, France, with over 20 years of experience innovating in UX/UI and emerging technologies. He specializes in guiding enterprises toward cutting-edge digital solutions, combining user-centered design with continuous optimization and artificial intelligence integration.

Projects & Resources:

OI Dev Docs - Documentation for all Open Source OI Lab packages
OnAI - Training courses and masterclasses on generative AI for businesses
Promptr - Prompt engineering Management Platform

Support

For support, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.

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