TypeSpec
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 4 API description languages by recommenders
Microsoft's API description language that generates Azure SDKs, docs and CLIs, and makes writing OpenAPI far less verbose. Critics say its syntax seems minimal and somewhat lacking.
Microsoft's API description language that generates Azure SDKs, docs and CLIs, and makes writing OpenAPI far less verbose. Critics say its syntax seems minimal and somewhat lacking.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Far less verbose than OpenAPI
“far less verbose. Although, seems to be suspiciously minimal”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Building a CLI for All of Cloudflare” “it seemed like the antidote to the verbosity”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “GraphQL: The enterprise honeymoon is over” Makes writing OpenAPI easier
“agree it makes writing OpenAPI really easy”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Building a CLI for All of Cloudflare” “"what if OpenAPI was good"”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Building a CLI for All of Cloudflare”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Syntax seems minimal or lacking
“far less verbose. Although, seems to be suspiciously minimal”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Building a CLI for All of Cloudflare” “based on Erlang's "Typespec" syntax which is a bit lacking”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Elixir v1.20 released: now a gradually typed language”
Other API description languages people recommend
The three most recommended other API description languages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAPI Specification | 30 | 22 | 58% | 10 | — | — |
| TypeSpecThis page | 11 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Skir | 7 | 9 | 44% | 1 | — | — |
| Swagger | 6 | 5 | 55% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I quite like the look of Typespec though I haven't used it much.”
“based on Erlang's "Typespec" syntax which is a bit lacking”
“It's what generates all azure SDKs, docs, CLIs now, and it's really good.”
“far less verbose. Although, seems to be suspiciously minimal”
“agree it makes writing OpenAPI really easy”
“"what if OpenAPI was good"”
“Typespec is up and coming”
“but more extensible, not tied to Java, and built with Typescript in mind”
“it seemed like the antidote to the verbosity”
“writing openapi yaml quickly became horrible past a few apis.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.