Xero-OpenAPI

An OpenAPI (Swagger) specification for the Xero API with OAuth 2.0 security schema.

Description

This repository holds the official Xero OpenAPI descriptions.

OpenAPI spec 3.0 In Release (used for one or more SDKs)

• Accounting
• Identity
• Bank Feeds
• Fixed Assets
• Project
• Payroll AU
• Payroll UK
• Payroll NZ
• Files

Contribution guide

Use Conventional Commits for all commits.

Why this matters:

• We use semantic-release to calculate versions automatically.
• Consistent commit formatting keeps versioning predictable and release notes accurate.

Versioning rules:

• feat: -> minor version bump
• fix: -> patch version bump
• ! in the header or BREAKING CHANGE: footer -> major version bump

Examples:

feat(accounting): add includeArchived query parameter to GET /Accounts

fix(files): correct nullable schema for File.ContentLength

feat(payroll-nz)!: remove deprecated EarningsRateID field from Payslip response

BREAKING CHANGE: clients must use EarningsRateIdentifier instead of EarningsRateID.

Code Generators

We are using OpenAPI generator along with these OAS yaml files to generate our new SDKs.

Preview

Online

There are lots of tools available for viewing and editing OpenAPI descriptions in a nicely formatted way. A popular tool is SwaggerHub - a version of which is hosted here.

Once you sign up or login, you can create a new API under your account and import a Xero API spec.

Local

Node.js

If you have Node.js you can use the Swagger UI via an NPM package (it will open a webpage in your default browser): npx -y open-swagger-ui --open ./xero_accounting.yaml

Docker

To view a local file via Docker, run: docker run -p 8080:8080 -e SWAGGER_JSON=/local/xero_accounting.yaml -v $PWD:/local docker.swagger.io/swaggerapi/swagger-ui

To view a hosted file via Docker, run: docker run -p 8080:8080 -e SWAGGER_JSON_URL=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/XeroAPI/Xero-OpenAPI/refs/heads/master/xero_accounting.yaml docker.swagger.io/swaggerapi/swagger-ui

Updates

If you find something missing or incorrect please open an issue or send us a pull request.

API Diff Checking

This repository includes automated API diff checking using oasdiff to detect breaking changes and modifications to the OpenAPI specifications.

Quick Start

# Check all xero*.yaml files against master branch
./scripts/api-diff/api-diff.sh

# Check a single file
./scripts/api-diff/api-diff.sh xero_accounting.yaml

Breaking Change Enforcement

By default, API diff checks fail when breaking changes are detected.

Breaking changes are allowed only when commit messages include a Conventional Commits breaking marker:

• ! in the commit header, for example feat!: remove deprecated endpoint
• BREAKING CHANGE: in the commit body/footer

Full Documentation

For detailed usage, configuration options, environment variables, and integration details, see scripts/api-diff/README.md.

License

This software is published under the MIT License.

Copyright (c) 2019 Xero Limited

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.