fastapi

FastAPI Patterns

Modern FastAPI (0.100+) with Pydantic v2, async-first, and typed throughout.

When to Activate

• Structuring a FastAPI app with routers and layered architecture
• Designing dependency injection chains with Depends
• Defining Pydantic v2 request/response schemas
• Handling errors, custom exception handlers, or middleware
• Adding authentication (OAuth2, JWT, API keys)
• Writing background tasks or startup/shutdown logic
• Testing FastAPI routes with TestClient or async httpx

Project Structure

src/
├── api/
│   ├── app.py              # create_app(), register routers + middleware
│   ├── dependencies.py     # shared Depends (db session, current user, etc.)
│   ├── middleware.py        # CORS, logging, request ID
│   └── routes/
│       ├── users.py
│       └── orders.py
├── domain/
│   ├── entities/           # Pure Pydantic models — no ORM, no HTTP
│   ├── use_cases/          # Business logic — orchestrates services
│   └── repositories/       # Abstract interfaces (Protocol or ABC)
├── adapters/
│   ├── database/           # SQLAlchemy models + session factory
│   ├── crud/               # Concrete repository implementations
│   └── external/           # Third-party HTTP clients
├── config/
│   ├── settings.py         # Pydantic Settings (env vars)
│   └── dependencies.py     # App-wide singletons (DB engine, Redis, etc.)
└── main.py                 # uvicorn entry point

App Factory

# api/app.py
from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
from fastapi import FastAPI
from fastapi.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware

from config.dependencies import GlobalDependencies
from api.routes import users, orders


@asynccontextmanager
async def lifespan(app: FastAPI):
    # Startup: initialize singletons, DB pools, caches
    await GlobalDependencies.initialize()
    yield
    # Shutdown: close connections cleanly
    await GlobalDependencies.close()


def create_app() -> FastAPI:
    app = FastAPI(
        title="My API",
        version="1.0.0",
        docs_url="/swagger",
        redoc_url="/api",
        lifespan=lifespan,
    )

    app.add_middleware(
        CORSMiddleware,
        allow_origins=["http://localhost:3000"],
        allow_credentials=True,
        allow_methods=["*"],
        allow_headers=["*"],
    )

    app.include_router(users.router, prefix="/api/v1/users", tags=["users"])
    app.include_router(orders.router, prefix="/api/v1/orders", tags=["orders"])

    return app