reusing an object for multiple JSON schemas - jsonschema

Question

I have two separate JSON schemas (used to validate HTTP request endpoints for a REST API) where they both accept the same exact object, but have different required fields (this is a create vs update request). Is there a way I can reuse a single definition of this object and only change the required fields? I know how to use $ref for reusing an object as a property of another object, but I cannot figure out how to reuse an entire object as the top-level object in a schema. My failed attempt so far:
event.json
{
"id": "event",
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"name": {
"type": "string"
},
"start_date": {
"type": "integer"
},
"end_date": {
"type": "integer"
},
"description": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"additionalProperties": false
}
event-create.json
{
"id": "event-create",
"type": "object",
"$ref": "event",
"additionalProperties": false,
"required": [ "name", "description" ]
}
Obviously that doesn't work. It seems like it tries to insert the entirety of 'event' into the definition of 'event-create', including the ID and such. I tried referincing event#/properties to no avail. I can't seem to do a $ref as the sole value inside a properties property either. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Any members other than "$ref" in a JSON Reference object SHALL be ignored.
- https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-pbryan-zyp-json-ref-03#section-3
This is why your example doesn't work. Anything other than the $ref field is supposed to be ignored.
Support for $ref is limited to fields whose type is a JSON Schema. That is why trying to use it for properties doesn't work. properties is a plain object whose values are JSON Schemas.
The best way to do this is with allOf. In this case allOf can sort-of be thought of as a list of mixin schemas.
{
"id": "event-create",
"type": "object",
"allOf": [{ "$ref": "event" }],
"required": ["name", "description"]
}

Answer 2

I found some syntax that seems to work, but I'm not terribly happy with it:
{
"id": "event-create",
"allOf": [
{ "$ref": "event" },
{ "required": [ "name", "description" ] }
]
}
Seems like an abuse of the allOf operator, particularly for another case where there are no required fields (thus only one element insid the allof). But it works, so I'm going with it unless someone has a better idea.