JSON schema for Caddy configuration

[mehrta]

Hi Caddy Team,

I appreciate the work you do!
Would it be possible to create a JSON Schema for Caddy's configuration? It would enable auto-completion, validation, and reduce configuration errors, making it easier for users to work with Caddy.
Thank you for considering this!

[mohammed90]

There's caddy-json-schema, but I think it broke a while ago. There isn't maintainable way to do it in our codebase. If the engineering flow is defined, we can consider it, but not now.

I'll close the ticket, but feel free to continue the discussion.

[mholt]

I don't remember it breaking... (but then, I don't remember a lot of things!) -- regardless, yeah, the JSON config structure varies depending on the build configuration, so you have to generate your own schema for it to be correct.

[KaKi87]

Hi,

There isn't maintainable way to do it in our codebase. If the engineering flow is defined, we can consider it, but not now.

As it's been a year, would this be doable now ?

I also would like to request a JSON schema for the access logs.

Thanks

[steadytao]

I don’t think the answer has materially changed. A generic checked-in schema for Caddy config would still be inaccurate for many builds because the JSON structure depends on the modules compiled into each binary.

The maintainable version of this would probably need to be generated from a specific Caddy build with module metadata rich enough to describe each module’s config shape. I do not think we have that engineering flow today.

[KaKi87]

What about providing the JSON schema for a vanilla install ?

I don't want to parse data while expecting properties that only plugins would provide anyways.

[steadytao]

What about providing the JSON schema for a vanilla install ?

A schema for a clean build is more tractable but I think the maintainability issue still applies. A checked-in, hand-maintained schema would drift and in a fair amount of cases it would only be correct for that specific Caddy version and build.

The viable shape would probably be generated schema output from a built Caddy binary, clearly labelled as applying to the official release build only. If someone wants to explore that as tooling first, that seems like the right starting point but I really do not think we should maintain a manual schema in-tree.

[mholt]

What about providing the JSON schema for a vanilla install ?

It would be wrong/incomplete for most builds, by our estimates.

I think caddy-json-schema (linked above) is the best solution. It integrates with IDEs natively, it produces the right schema for your exact build, and is low-hassle.

[KaKi87]

I think caddy-json-schema (linked above) is the best solution.

Well, I don't know whether it's broken like someone else said, but it's definitely unmaintained (last commit years ago).

And what about access logs ?