API Resources

Introduction

When you build an API, you rarely want to hand the client a model exactly as it is stored. An API resource is the transformation layer that sits between your Articulate models and the JSON your users see.

from almasix.http.resources import JsonResource


class UserResource(JsonResource):
    def to_dict(self, request=None):
        return {
            "id": self.id,
            "name": self.name,
            "created_at": self.created_at,
        }

Return one from a controller and it becomes the response:

async def show(user_id: int):
    return UserResource(await User.query().find_or_fail(user_id))

{
  "data": {"id": 1, "name": "Ada", "created_at": "2026-09-08T12:30:00"}
}

Anything with a to_response() method can be returned from a controller — Almasix’s version of Laravel’s Responsable.

File map

Piece	Path
Resource	src/almasix/http/resources/resource.py — JsonResource
Collections	src/almasix/http/resources/collection.py — ResourceCollection
Response + wrapping	src/almasix/http/resources/response.py
Missing / merge markers	src/almasix/http/resources/missing.py
Generator	smith make:resource, stub resource.stub

Generating resources

smith make:resource UserResource
smith make:resource UserCollection            # a collection, by name
smith make:resource UserResource --collection # or by flag
smith make:resource Api/UserResource          # nested namespace

Files land in app/http/resources/, snake_cased: app/http/resources/user_resource.py.

Writing resources

A resource wraps one object, available as self.resource. Attributes fall through, so self.name reads the model’s name:

class UserResource(JsonResource):
    def to_dict(self, request=None):
        return {
            "id": self.id,
            "name": self.name,
            "email": self.email,
        }

If you never override to_dict, the resource serializes whatever it was given — a model through its own to_dict(), a mapping as-is.

Relationships

Nest resources inside each other. Only the outermost resource is wrapped:

class PostResource(JsonResource):
    def to_dict(self, request=None):
        return {
            "title": self.title,
            "author": UserResource(self.get_relations()["author"]),
            "comments": CommentResource.collection(self.get_relations()["comments"]),
        }

In practice you want when_loaded() — see conditional relationships below.

Resource collections

SomeResource.collection(items) wraps many:

return UserResource.collection(await User.query().get())

{"data": [{"id": 1, "name": "Ada"}, {"id": 2, "name": "Bob"}]}

For collection-level metadata, declare a collection class:

from almasix.http.resources import ResourceCollection


class UserCollection(ResourceCollection):
    collects = UserResource

    def with_(self, request=None):
        return {"meta": {"team": "engineering"}}

Without collects, a UserCollection looks for a UserResource in the same module and falls back to the plain JsonResource.

Preserving collection keys

Collections renumber by default. To keep the keys of a keyed collection:

class UserCollection(ResourceCollection):
    collects = UserResource
    preserve_keys = True

Data wrapping

The outermost resource is wrapped in data. Turn that off, or rename it, once at boot — usually in a service provider:

JsonResource.without_wrapping()
JsonResource.wrap_with("record")

One resource can differ from the rest by declaring its own key:

class UserResource(JsonResource):
    wrap = "user"

If your to_dict() already returns a data key, it is not wrapped twice.

Pagination

Hand a paginator to a collection and the response gains meta:

return UserResource.collection(await User.query().paginate(per_page=15))

{
  "data": [...],
  "meta": {
    "current_page": 1, "per_page": 15, "from": 1, "to": 15,
    "last_page": 4, "total": 60, "path": "https://example.test/api/users"
  },
  "links": {
    "first": "https://example.test/api/users?page=1",
    "last": "https://example.test/api/users?page=4",
    "prev": null,
    "next": "https://example.test/api/users?page=2"
  }
}

path and links need a URL, so they appear only when there is a request to read one from — inside a controller, they are there; in a unit test with a bare paginator, they are not.

A paginated payload is always wrapped, even when wrapping is disabled, because meta needs somewhere to sit beside the rows.

simple_paginate() reports has_more instead of total and last_page.

Customizing pagination information

class UserCollection(ResourceCollection):
    collects = UserResource

    def pagination_information(self, request, paginated, default):
        default["meta"]["team"] = "engineering"
        return default

Conditional attributes

Include a key only sometimes. Anything that resolves to missing disappears from the output entirely — at any depth.

class UserResource(JsonResource):
    def to_dict(self, request=None):
        return {
            "id": self.id,
            "secret": self.when(request.user.is_admin, "value"),
            "lazy": self.when(condition, lambda: expensive()),
            "with_default": self.when(condition, "yes", "no"),
        }

Method	Includes the value when
when(condition, value, default)	the condition is truthy
unless(condition, value, default)	the condition is falsy
when_has(attribute, value, default)	the underlying object has that attribute
when_not_null(value, default)	the value is not None

Conditions, values, and defaults may each be callables, evaluated only when needed.

Merging conditional attributes

Sometimes a whole block of keys should appear together:

"merged": self.merge_when(request.user.is_admin, {
    "first_secret": "value",
    "second_secret": "value",
}),
"always": self.merge({"seen": True}),
"guest": self.merge_unless(request.user.is_admin, {"role": "guest"}),

The key you file a merge under ("merged" above) is discarded — its contents are spliced into the parent. Merging a list renumbers into the parent instead.

Conditional relationships

class PostResource(JsonResource):
    def to_dict(self, request=None):
        return {
            "title": self.title,
            "author": self.when_loaded("author"),
            "author_name": self.when_loaded("author", lambda author: author.name),
            "comments_count": self.when_counted("comments"),
            "votes": self.when_aggregated("comments", "votes", "sum"),
            "full_name": self.when_appended("full_name"),
        }

Method	Includes the value when
when_loaded(relation, value, default)	the relation was eager loaded
when_counted(relation, value, default)	with_count() loaded that count
when_aggregated(relation, column, aggregate, …)	with_sum() / with_avg() / … loaded it
when_appended(attribute, value, default)	the model appends that accessor
when_pivot_loaded(table, value, default)	the intermediate row is present
when_pivot_loaded_as(accessor, table, value, default)	same, under a renamed accessor

when_loaded never triggers a query — an unloaded relation simply vanishes from the payload, which is what makes N+1 impossible here.

"added_by": self.when_pivot_loaded("post_tag", lambda pivot: pivot.added_by),

Adding metadata

with_() adds top-level data to every response of a resource; additional() adds it to one:

class UserCollection(ResourceCollection):
    def with_(self, request=None):
        return {"meta": {"key": "value"}}

return UserResource(user).additional({"meta": {"token": token}})

Resource responses

Status and headers are fluent, and with_response() is the hook for anything else:

return UserResource(user).status(201).header("X-Rate-Limit", "60")

class UserResource(JsonResource):
    def with_response(self, request, response):
        response.headers["X-Value"] = "True"

response(request=None) builds the response yourself; the request defaults to the one being handled.

Dates, decimals, UUIDs, and sets serialize without a custom encoder.

Deliberate deviations from Laravel

• to_dict() rather than toArray(), matching the rest of Almasix, and it takes an optional request because Almasix reads the current request from context rather than injecting it everywhere.
• with_() and merge() carry trailing or shortened names because with is a Python keyword.
• links and meta.path appear only when a request URL is available. Almasix’s paginator has no path of its own yet — that is M43’s job — so the resource layer reads the current request instead of inventing a URL.
• status() / header() / headers() live on the resource, where Laravel chains them off ->response(). Starlette responses have no fluent header setter to chain from.
• collects is a class attribute holding the class itself, not a string class name, because Python has no autoloading to resolve one from.

Related

• Articulate: Serialization — hidden, visible, appends, and how a model turns itself into a dict.
• Responses — everything else a controller can return.