Patchly 0.0.2

🩹 Patchly

The null vs "I didn't send this" problem — solved.

{ "firstName": "Mark", "age": null }

☝️ firstName → update it. age → clear it. lastName → not sent, don't touch it.

Every PATCH endpoint needs this. Nullable DTOs can't do it. Patchly can.

dotnet add package Patchly

⚡ 30-Second Overview

1. Define your patch DTO:

[PatchDocument]
public partial class CustomerPatch
{
    public string? FirstName { get; set; }
    public string? LastName { get; set; }
    public int? Age { get; set; }
}

2. Use it in your endpoint:

[HttpPatch("{id}")]
public IActionResult Patch(int id, CustomerPatch patch)
{
    var customer = _repo.Get(id);

    if (patch.Provided.FirstName)
        customer.FirstName = patch.FirstName;

    if (patch.Provided.Age)
        customer.Age = patch.Age;  // could be null — that's intentional

    _repo.Save(customer);
    return Ok(customer);
}

3. That's it. No configuration. No middleware. No reflection. It just works.

🤔 Why Does This Exist?

Every .NET developer building PATCH endpoints hits the same wall: how do you tell the difference between "the client sent null" and "the client didn't send this field at all"?

The existing options all suck:

Patchly gives you null vs absent tracking with a clean OpenAPI schema and zero ceremony.

✅ What You Get

📊 How It Compares

📦 Installation

dotnet add package Patchly

Requirements: .NET 6+ · C# 9+ (C# 12+ for required keyword)

Patchly uses System.Text.Json, which ships in-box with .NET 6+. No additional dependencies.

🔧 How It Works Under the Hood

Patchly source-generates three things for each [PatchDocument] class:

1. 🔄 A JsonConverter that tracks which properties were present in the JSON during deserialization
2. ✅ A Provided accessor with per-property booleans (patch.Provided.FirstName)
3. 🔗 A WasProvided(string) method for generic/dynamic scenarios

📡 On the Wire

The client sends plain JSON — only the fields it wants to change:

{ "firstName": "Mark", "age": null }

• firstName → updated to "Mark"
• age → explicitly set to null
• lastName → not sent, left unchanged

🖥️ In Your Endpoint

Works with controllers:

[HttpPatch("{id}")]
public IActionResult Patch(int id, CustomerPatch patch)
{
    var customer = _repo.Get(id);

    if (patch.Provided.FirstName)
        customer.FirstName = patch.FirstName;

    if (patch.Provided.Age)
        customer.Age = patch.Age;  // could be null — that's intentional

    _repo.Save(customer);
    return Ok(customer);
}

And minimal APIs — no configuration required:

app.MapPatch("/customers/{id}", (int id, CustomerPatch patch) =>
{
    var customer = repo.Get(id);

    if (patch.Provided.FirstName)
        customer.FirstName = patch.FirstName;

    if (patch.Provided.Age)
        customer.Age = patch.Age;

    repo.Save(customer);
    return Results.Ok(customer);
});

💡 The Provided accessor is IntelliSense-discoverable — no magic strings. For generic/dynamic scenarios, WasProvided(string) and ProvidedProperties are also available via the IPatchDocument interface.

📋 In Your OpenAPI Schema

Just a plain object with nullable properties — no wrapper types, no special formats:

{
  "CustomerPatch": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "firstName": { "type": "string", "nullable": true },
      "lastName": { "type": "string", "nullable": true },
      "age": { "type": "integer", "format": "int32", "nullable": true }
    }
  }
}

NSwag, Kiota, and other generators produce a clean, idiomatic client.

📲 Client-Side Behaviour

How the client sends partial updates depends on which client generator you use.

Kiota (recommended)

Kiota's backing store tracks which properties your code actually sets and only serializes those — including explicit nulls. Works perfectly with Patchly out of the box:

var patch = new CustomerPatch();
patch.FirstName = "Mark";
patch.Age = null;  // explicitly clear age
await client.Customers[id].PatchAsync(patch);
// Sends: { "firstName": "Mark", "age": null }
// lastName is NOT sent — Kiota knows it was never touched

NSwag

NSwag generates plain DTOs with no change tracking, so by default System.Text.Json serializes all properties. Configure your serializer to skip nulls:

var options = new JsonSerializerOptions
{
    DefaultIgnoreCondition = JsonIgnoreCondition.WhenWritingNull
};

This covers most cases. The trade-off is you can't explicitly send null to clear a field. For that edge case, construct the request manually:

var body = new JsonObject
{
    ["firstName"] = "Mark",
    ["age"] = null
};

🏗️ Nested Patch Documents

When a property's type is itself a [PatchDocument], tracking works independently at each level:

[PatchDocument]
public partial class AddressPatch
{
    public string? Line1 { get; set; }
    public string? City { get; set; }
}

[PatchDocument]
public partial class CustomerPatch
{
    public string? FirstName { get; set; }
    public AddressPatch? Address { get; set; }
}

{ "address": { "line1": "123 Main St" } }

patch.Provided.Address       // ✅ true — address object was sent
patch.Address.Provided.Line1 // ✅ true — line1 was sent within address
patch.Address.Provided.City  // ❌ false — city was not sent
patch.Provided.FirstName     // ❌ false — not sent at all

🚀 Native AOT Support

Patchly works with Native AOT (PublishAot=true) on .NET 8+. Add PatchlyJsonTypeInfoResolver to your resolver chain before your JsonSerializerContext:

builder.Services.ConfigureHttpJsonOptions(options =>
{
    options.SerializerOptions.TypeInfoResolverChain.Insert(0, PatchlyJsonTypeInfoResolver.Default);
});

Or with manual JsonSerializerOptions:

var options = new JsonSerializerOptions
{
    TypeInfoResolver = JsonTypeInfoResolver.Combine(
        PatchlyJsonTypeInfoResolver.Default,
        AppJsonContext.Default)
};

Important: The Patchly resolver handles [PatchDocument] types only. Property-level types (e.g., string, int?, List<string>) must be covered by your JsonSerializerContext. Non-AOT apps don't need any of this — the existing [JsonConverter] attribute continues to work automatically.

🎛️ Supported JSON Attributes

Patchly respects standard System.Text.Json attributes on your properties:

The generated converter also works with all JsonSerializerOptions configuration: naming policies, PropertyNameCaseInsensitive, DefaultIgnoreCondition, and JsonSerializerDefaults.Web.

🔗 IPatchDocument Interface

All generated patch documents implement IPatchDocument, which exposes:

• bool WasProvided(string propertyName) — check by C# property name (case-insensitive)
• IReadOnlySet<string> ProvidedProperties — the set of C# property names that were present in the JSON

Use IPatchDocument for generic constraints:

public void ApplyPatch<T>(T patch, Action<T> apply) where T : IPatchDocument
{
    if (patch.ProvidedProperties.Any())
        apply(patch);
}

🛡️ Diagnostics

The source generator catches problems at compile time so you don't have to debug them at runtime.

Errors

Warnings

📄 License

MIT