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Engineering27 May 2026·3 min read

Stainless alternatives: What to use now that the SDK generator is shutting down

The engineering questions that matter are rarely about which tool.

Paycux engineering

The engineering questions that matter are rarely about which tool. They are about which failure you are willing to own, and how loudly it will tell you when it happens.

This piece walks through how we think about it at Paycux, what we have changed our minds about, and where the sharp edges are.

Why SDK generation is hard to get right

Why SDK generation is hard to get right deserves its own treatment. Measure before you optimise, then measure the thing users feel rather than the thing that is easy to instrument. A p50 that looks fine while the p99 is unusable is a reporting failure, not a performance one.

Idempotency is not a nice-to-have in any system with retries. Key on an identifier the caller supplies, store the outcome, and return the same answer to the same key rather than doing the work twice.

The alternatives

Consider the alternatives. Idempotency is not a nice-to-have in any system with retries. Key on an identifier the caller supplies, store the outcome, and return the same answer to the same key rather than doing the work twice.

Make the boundary explicit. When one part of the system can only talk to another through a named interface, you can change either side without a meeting; when it cannot, every change becomes a negotiation.

  • Name the boundary before you cross it
  • Measure what users feel, not what is easy to instrument
  • Make every retried operation idempotent
  • Write down the assumption that would invalidate the design

OpenAPI Generator

Consider openapi generator. Measure before you optimise, then measure the thing users feel rather than the thing that is easy to instrument. A p50 that looks fine while the p99 is unusable is a reporting failure, not a performance one.

Idempotency is not a nice-to-have in any system with retries. Key on an identifier the caller supplies, store the outcome, and return the same answer to the same key rather than doing the work twice.

Speakeasy

Speakeasy is where this gets concrete. Make the boundary explicit. When one part of the system can only talk to another through a named interface, you can change either side without a meeting; when it cannot, every change becomes a negotiation.

Make the boundary explicit. When one part of the system can only talk to another through a named interface, you can change either side without a meeting; when it cannot, every change becomes a negotiation.

Measure before you optimise, then measure the thing users feel rather than the thing that is easy to instrument.

Fern

Fern deserves its own treatment. Idempotency is not a nice-to-have in any system with retries. Key on an identifier the caller supplies, store the outcome, and return the same answer to the same key rather than doing the work twice.

Measure before you optimise, then measure the thing users feel rather than the thing that is easy to instrument. A p50 that looks fine while the p99 is unusable is a reporting failure, not a performance one.

Build your own pipeline with oagen

That brings us to build your own pipeline with oagen. Make the boundary explicit. When one part of the system can only talk to another through a named interface, you can change either side without a meeting; when it cannot, every change becomes a negotiation.

Idempotency is not a nice-to-have in any system with retries. Key on an identifier the caller supplies, store the outcome, and return the same answer to the same key rather than doing the work twice.

When oagen is the right call

When oagen is the right call is where this gets concrete. Idempotency is not a nice-to-have in any system with retries. Key on an identifier the caller supplies, store the outcome, and return the same answer to the same key rather than doing the work twice.

Make the boundary explicit. When one part of the system can only talk to another through a named interface, you can change either side without a meeting; when it cannot, every change becomes a negotiation.

Where this leaves us

None of this is exotic. It is the ordinary discipline of deciding what you own, writing down what you assume, and making the failures loud enough to notice.

If you are working through the same problem and want to compare notes, the docs cover the mechanics and the console shows the behaviour on your own data.

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