zod-to-form-codegen

name	zod-to-form-codegen
description	Browser-safe code generation for Zod v4 form components Use when: Building a custom codegen pipeline that assembles `FormField[]` and needs the.... Also: zod, zod-v4, codegen, forms, form-generation, react-hook-form, schema-driven, template-generation, browser-safe, component-codegen, schema-to-tsx.
license	MIT

@zod-to-form/codegen

Browser-safe code generation for Zod v4 form components

Features

1. Build-time codegen with zero-dependency eject

The CLI reads your Zod schema and generates a complete, standalone .tsx form component. The output has no runtime dependency on any @zod-to-form package — it imports react, react-hook-form, your components, and zod only when refines or transforms are present. Stop using zod-to-form entirely and the generated code keeps working.

The runtime <ZodForm> uses the same @zod-to-form/core walker and the same z2f.config.ts, so component overrides, props, sections, and field ordering carry across. Start with runtime for rapid iteration, eject to codegen for production — nothing changes except who owns the output.

2. AOT validation optimization

The walker knows both the schema constraints and which component renders each field. This enables three levels of progressive optimization that work in both runtime and codegen:

Level 1 — Decompose tree. Inline all per-field Zod calls as atomic safeParse on hoisted schema fragments (created once at module load, not per keystroke). Eliminate zodResolver. Object-level refines/transforms collected into a schemaLite and called via safeParse on submit.

Level 2 — Native rules. Replace inlined Zod calls with native RHF register() rules where supported: min, max, minLength, maxLength, pattern (including extracted email/uuid/url regexes), required, step. Error messages extracted from the Zod schema at build time. Component-enforced types (enum, boolean, literal) need no validation at all. After L2, Zod calls only remain for fields with refine() or transform(). If none remain and schemaLite is empty, the zod import can be dropped from codegen output.

Level 3 — Cross-field UX. Convert analyzable cross-field superRefine — both inline on fields and top-level on the schema object — to watch() + validate for real-time feedback instead of submit-time errors.

3. shadcn/ui preset with prop bridging

The 'shadcn' preset handles controlled components — Select, Checkbox, Switch, RadioGroup — with no custom widgets or renderers. Each component declares its prop mapping once:

Select:    { controlled: true, props: { onValueChange: 'field.onChange' } }
Checkbox:  { controlled: true, props: { checked: 'field.value', onCheckedChange: 'field.onChange' } }

Values that match a known RHF field expression (field.onChange, field.value, field.onBlur, field.ref) are resolved from the React Hook Form controller. Everything else passes through as a literal. One props Record for both — no separate propMap.

In RJSF you write a custom widget per controlled component. In JSON Forms you write a custom renderer. Here you write two lines of config.

4. Zod v4 native introspection

No schema conversion. No intermediate representation invented by the library. zod-to-form reads Zod v4's own internal API:

• _zod.def for schema structure (types, shapes, discriminators)
• _zod.bag for constraint values (min, max, patterns, formats)
• z.registry() for metadata (title, description, examples, deprecated)
• .meta() for UI-specific annotations (component overrides, props, hidden, order)

When Zod v4 adds new constraint types, the walker picks them up without code changes.

5. Schema-level conditionals via discriminated unions

The walker handles Zod discriminated unions natively. Field visibility and validation are always in sync because both derive from the same schema — not from a parallel rule system that can drift.

const schema = z.discriminatedUnion('type', [
  z.object({ type: z.literal('personal'), firstName: z.string(), lastName: z.string() }),
  z.object({ type: z.literal('business'), companyName: z.string(), taxId: z.string() }),
]);

// Renders a select for 'type'. Switching to 'business' removes firstName/lastName
// from the form state and validation, adds companyName/taxId. No rule system needed.

6. Extensible processor + optimizer registries

The walker dispatches each schema node through two registries:

Processor registry — maps Zod types to components. One processor per def.type. Override or extend for your own components.

Optimizer registry — optimizes validation per field. Chained (1:N per type) because L1, L2, L3 are independent transforms. Register custom optimizers for components that enforce constraints the library doesn't know about:

const dateRangeOptimizer: FormOptimizer = (schema, ctx, field) => {
  if (field.component === 'DateRangePicker') {
    field.validation = { mode: 'component-enforced' };
    field.zodSchema = undefined;
  }
};

walkSchema(schema, {
  optimization: { level: 2, optimizers: { date: [dateRangeOptimizer] } }
});

7. Typed recursive FieldConfig

fields and arrayItems on FieldConfig are typed to the Zod schema shape. Your editor autocompletes field names and catches typos at compile time.

export default defineConfig({
  schemas: {
    userSchema: {
      fields: {
        name: { component: 'Input', order: 1 },
        addresses: {
          arrayItems: {
            fields: {
              street: { component: 'Input' },
              city: { component: 'Combobox', props: { options: cities } },
            }
          }
        },
        // typo: { ... }  ← TypeScript error: 'typo' does not exist on UserSchema
      }
    }
  }
});

8. Section grouping without schema restructuring

Group fields from a flat schema into visual sections without changing the schema. Fields sharing the same section key are rendered as a group.

fields: {
  billingName:     { section: 'billing', order: 1 },
  billingCard:     { section: 'billing', order: 2 },
  shippingAddress: { section: 'shipping', order: 1 },
  shippingCity:    { section: 'shipping', order: 2 },
}

RJSF and JSON Forms require restructuring your schema or maintaining a separate layout document to achieve this.

---

Quick Start

pnpm add @zod-to-form/core @zod-to-form/react zod react react-hook-form @hookform/resolvers

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Building a custom codegen pipeline that assembles FormField[] and needs the TSX string → use generateFormComponent
• Writing codegen tests that verify output structure without spawning a CLI process → use generateFormComponent
• Building a custom codegen backend that needs the same override resolution logic as the CLI → use resolveFieldMapping
• Writing tests that verify field-to-component mapping for a given config → use resolveFieldMapping

Do NOT use when:

• You want file-writing behavior — use runGenerate() from @zod-to-form/cli instead (generateFormComponent)
• You are using the Vite plugin — compileTarget wraps this and handles esbuild transformation (generateFormComponent)
• You are using the CLI or Vite plugin — this is called internally and you don't need it (resolveFieldMapping)

API surface: 8 functions, 1 constants

NEVER

• NEVER call generateFormComponent with a stale fields array from a previous schema version — there is no cache invalidation; callers must re-run walkSchema on schema change
• NEVER use the returned string as a module cache key — it is not content-addressed; use configHash from @zod-to-form/core on the config object instead
• NEVER assume source: 'none' means the field has no component — the schema walker may have inferred one; resolveFieldMapping only resolves user-provided config overrides

Configuration

2 configuration interfaces — see references/config.md for details.

Quick Reference

Codegen: generateFormComponent (Generate a React form component as a TypeScript string from FormField[]), resolveFieldMapping (Resolve the component name and override config for a single FormField key) Templates: getFileHeader (Generate the import block for a form component file), renderField (Render a single FormField to its plain-HTML JSX string), registerPathExpr (Produce the correct register(), generateSchemaLiteFile(Generate the content of a), getFieldTemplateSource (Return the source code for the preset's FieldTemplate React component) Config Templates: buildConfigSource (Generate a z2f) **field-templates:** PRESET_TEMPLATE_IMPORTS` (Components that each preset's field template imports from...)

References

Load these on demand — do NOT read all at once:

• When calling any function → read references/functions.md for full signatures, parameters, and return types
• When using exported constants → read references/variables.md
• When configuring options → read references/config.md for all settings and defaults

Links

• Repository
• Author: Pradeep Mouli [e-mail] (https://github.com/pradeepmouli)