📄 ai-sdk/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/zod-schema

zodSchema is a helper function that converts a Zod schema into a JSON schema object that is compatible with the AI SDK. It takes a Zod schema and optional configuration as inputs, and returns a typed schema.

You can use it to generate structured data and in tools .

You can also pass Zod objects directly to the AI SDK functions. Internally, the AI SDK will convert the Zod schema to a JSON schema using zodSchema(). However, if you want to specify options such as useReferences, you can pass the zodSchema() helper function instead.

Example with recursive schemas

import { zodSchema } from 'ai';import { z } from 'zod';
// Define a base category schemaconst baseCategorySchema = z.object({  name: z.string(),});
// Define the recursive Category typetype Category = z.infer<typeof baseCategorySchema> & {  subcategories: Category[];};
// Create the recursive schema using z.lazyconst categorySchema: z.ZodType<Category> = baseCategorySchema.extend({  subcategories: z.lazy(() => categorySchema.array()),});
// Create the final schema with useReferences enabled for recursive supportconst mySchema = zodSchema(  z.object({    category: categorySchema,  }),  { useReferences: true },);

Import

import { zodSchema } from "ai"

API Signature

Parameters

zodSchema:

z.Schema

The Zod schema definition.

options:

object

Additional options for the schema conversion.

object

useReferences?:

boolean

Enables support for references in the schema. This is required for recursive schemas, e.g. with `z.lazy`. However, not all language models and providers support such references. Defaults to `false`.

Returns

A Schema object that is compatible with the AI SDK, containing both the JSON schema representation and validation functionality.

On this page

zodSchema()

Example with recursive schemas

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