how can I access schema field description

[1hachem]

in v3 I used to do something like

schema.shape[key].description

in order to access the description assigned to a field using .describe what is the equivalent in v4

[dosubot[bot]]

In Zod v4, descriptions and other metadata are no longer stored directly on schema fields, so schema.shape[key].description won't work. Instead, use the .meta() method to access metadata, including descriptions set via .describe() or .meta({ description: ... }):

const schema = z.object({
  name: z.string().describe("User's name"),
});

// Access the description:
const desc = schema.shape.name.meta()?.description; // "User's name"

If you've chained methods like .optional(), .nullable(), or .default(), call .describe() after those refinements to preserve the description. If you need to access metadata from a wrapped schema, use .unwrap():

const nameSchema = z.string().describe("User's name").optional();
const desc = nameSchema.unwrap().meta()?.description; // "User's name"

You can also retrieve descriptions from the JSON Schema output using z.toJSONSchema() if needed.

More details in the Zod v4 metadata docs and related GitHub issue.

If this answers your question, feel free to close the issue!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[1hachem]

what a waste of energy, sorry nature 😢