Programming/Technique/Codegen

• Codegen

  • Short for "code generation," codegen is a programming technique where code is automatically generated from specifications, templates, or other structured data rather than being written manually.

  • Common Use Cases

    • Generating API client SDKs from OpenAPI specifications (e.g., StreamIO/GitHub/stream-py uses codegen to generate code from OpenAPI)
    • Creating boilerplate code from templates
    • Using AI/Coding tools and LLMs to generate code
    • Generating code from domain-specific languages (DSLs) or configuration files

  • Benefits

    • Reduces manual coding effort and potential errors
    • Ensures consistency across generated code
    • Allows maintaining a single source of truth (specification) that drives code generation
    • Enables cross-language code generation from the same specification (e.g., generating SDKs in multiple languages from one OpenAPI spec)

  • Related Concepts

    • Modern codegen and OpenAPI-driven SDKs are often preferred over forcing a single language across front-end and back-end boundaries (see Person/Gergely Orosz/Podcast/25/10/Python Go Rust Typescript AI Armin Ronacher)