# SpecRestApiProps

Props to instantiate a new SpecRestApi.

Extends: SpecRestApiProps
Extends: RestApiBaseProps
Used as props by: SpecRestApi

- Source: [`aws-apigateway/lib/restapi.ts`](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/blob/v2.275.0/packages/aws-cdk-lib/aws-apigateway/lib/restapi.ts#L299)
- Type last changed: v2.222.0 · 4 Nov 2025

## Example

```ts
const api = new apigateway.SpecRestApi(this, 'books-api', {
  apiDefinition: apigateway.ApiDefinition.fromAsset('path-to-file.json'),
  mode: apigateway.RestApiMode.MERGE
});
```

## Properties

- `apiDefinition`: [ApiDefinition](/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk-lib.aws_apigateway.ApiDefinition.html) (required) — An OpenAPI definition compatible with API Gateway.

- `binaryMediaTypes`: string[] — The list of binary media mime-types that are supported by the SpecRestApi resource, such as "image/png" or "application/octet-stream".

  **Default:** SpecRestApi supports only UTF-8-encoded text payloads.

- `cloudWatchRole`: boolean — Automatically configure an AWS CloudWatch role for API Gateway.

  **Default:** false if `@aws-cdk/aws-apigateway:disableCloudWatchRole` is enabled, true otherwise

- `cloudWatchRoleRemovalPolicy`: [RemovalPolicy](/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk-lib.RemovalPolicy.html) = RemovalPolicy.RETAIN — The removal policy applied to the AWS CloudWatch role when this resource is removed from the application.

  Requires `cloudWatchRole` to be enabled.

- `deploy`: boolean = true — Indicates if a Deployment should be automatically created for this API, and recreated when the API model (resources, methods) changes.

  Since API Gateway deployments are immutable, When this option is enabled
  (by default), an AWS::ApiGateway::Deployment resource will automatically
  created with a logical ID that hashes the API model (methods, resources
  and options). This means that when the model changes, the logical ID of
  this CloudFormation resource will change, and a new deployment will be
  created.

  If this is set, `latestDeployment` will refer to the `Deployment` object
  and `deploymentStage` will refer to a `Stage` that points to this
  deployment. To customize the stage options, use the `deployOptions`
  property.

  A CloudFormation Output will also be defined with the root URL endpoint
  of this REST API.

- `deployOptions`: [StageOptions](/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk-lib.aws_apigateway.StageOptions.html) — Options for the API Gateway stage that will always point to the latest deployment when `deploy` is enabled.

  **Default:** Based on defaults of `StageOptions`.

  If `deploy` is disabled,
  this value cannot be set.

- `description`: string — A description of the RestApi construct.

  **Default:** 'Automatically created by the RestApi construct'

- `disableExecuteApiEndpoint`: boolean = false — Specifies whether clients can invoke the API using the default execute-api endpoint.

  To require that clients use a custom domain name to invoke the
  API, disable the default endpoint.

- `domainName`: [DomainNameOptions](/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk-lib.aws_apigateway.DomainNameOptions.html) — Configure a custom domain name and map it to this API.

  **Default:** no domain name is defined, use `addDomainName` or directly define a `DomainName`.

- `endpointConfiguration`: [EndpointConfiguration](/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk-lib.aws_apigateway.EndpointConfiguration.html) = EndpointType.EDGE — The EndpointConfiguration property type specifies the endpoint types of a REST API.

- `endpointExportName`: string — Export name for the CfnOutput containing the API endpoint.

  **Default:** when no export name is given, output will be created without export

- `endpointTypes`: [EndpointType](/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk-lib.aws_apigateway.EndpointType.html)[] = EndpointType.EDGE — A list of the endpoint types of the API.

  Use this property when creating
  an API.

- `failOnWarnings`: boolean = false — Indicates whether to roll back the resource if a warning occurs while API Gateway is creating the RestApi resource.

- `minCompressionSize`: [Size](/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk-lib.Size.html) — A Size(in bytes, kibibytes, mebibytes etc) that is used to enable compression (with non-negative between 0 and 10485760 (10M) bytes, inclusive) or disable compression (when undefined) on an API.

  **Default:** Compression is disabled.

  When compression is enabled, compression or
  decompression is not applied on the payload if the payload size is
  smaller than this value. Setting it to zero allows compression for any
  payload size.

- `mode`: [RestApiMode](/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk-lib.aws_apigateway.RestApiMode.html) — The Mode that determines how API Gateway handles resource updates.

  **Default:** `merge` for REST APIs created after March 29, 2021, otherwise `overwrite`

  Valid values are `overwrite` or `merge`.

  For `overwrite`, the new API definition replaces the existing one.
  The existing API identifier remains unchanged.

  For `merge`, the new API definition is merged with the existing API.

  If you don't specify this property, a default value is chosen:
  - For REST APIs created before March 29, 2021, the default is `overwrite`
  - For REST APIs created after March 29, 2021, the new API definition takes precedence, but any container types such as endpoint configurations and binary media types are merged with the existing API.

  Use the default mode to define top-level RestApi properties in addition to using OpenAPI.
  Generally, it's preferred to use API Gateway's OpenAPI extensions to model these properties.

- `parameters`: { [key: string]: string } — Custom header parameters for the request.

  **Default:** No parameters.

- `policy`: [PolicyDocument](/cdk/api/v2/docs/aws-cdk-lib.aws_iam.PolicyDocument.html) — A policy document that contains the permissions for this RestApi.

  **Default:** No policy.

- `restApiName`: string — A name for the API Gateway RestApi resource.

  **Default:** ID of the RestApi construct.

- `retainDeployments`: boolean = false — Retains old deployment resources when the API changes.

  This allows
  manually reverting stages to point to old deployments via the AWS
  Console.