Working example of feathers-swagger with the swagger definition in a service (not in app.js)

feathersjs-swagger.js

// -----------------------------------------------------
// projects.service.js
// -----------------------------------------------------
// Initializes the `projects` service on path `/projects`
const createService = require('feathers-sequelize');
const createModel = require('../../models/projects.model');
const hooks = require('./projects.hooks');

module.exports = function (app) {
  const Model = createModel(app);
  const paginate = app.get('paginate');

  const options = {
    Model,
    paginate
  };

  // Initialize our service with any options it requires
  app.use('/projects', createService(options));

  // Get our initialized service so that we can register hooks
  const service = app.service('projects');

  // attempt at swagger definition
  service.docs = {
    description: 'Service to manage projects',
    definitions: {
      'projects list': {
        $ref: '#/definitions/projects'
      },
      projects: {
        "type": "object",
        "required": [ "name", "description" ],
        "properties": {
          "name": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Project name"
          },
          "description": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Project description"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  };

  // Activate hooks
  service.hooks(hooks);

  // Expose swagger definition
  app.use('/projects', service);
};

// -----------------------------------------------------
// app.js
// -----------------------------------------------------
const path = require('path');
const favicon = require('serve-favicon');
const compress = require('compression');
const helmet = require('helmet');
const cors = require('cors');
const logger = require('./logger');

const feathers = require('@feathersjs/feathers');
const configuration = require('@feathersjs/configuration');
const express = require('@feathersjs/express');
const socketio = require('@feathersjs/socketio');

const authentication = require('@feathersjs/authentication');
const jwt = require('@feathersjs/authentication-jwt');
const local = require('@feathersjs/authentication-local');

const middleware = require('./middleware');
const services = require('./services');
const appHooks = require('./app.hooks');
const channels = require('./channels');

const sequelize = require('./sequelize');

const app = express(feathers());

const swagger = require('feathers-swagger');

// Load app configuration
app.configure(configuration());

// Setup Swagger. MUST come before configuring services
app.configure(swagger({
  docsPath: '/docs',
  uiIndex: true, // no need for src/docs.html
  info: {
    title: 'A test',
    description: 'A description'
  },
  ignore: {
    tags: ['authentication']
  }
}));

// Debug swagger object
//console.log (app.docs);

// Enable security, CORS, compression, favicon and body parsing
app.use(helmet());
app.use(cors());
app.use(compress());
app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(favicon(path.join(app.get('public'), 'favicon.ico')));
// Host the public folder
app.use('/', express.static(app.get('public')));

// Set up Plugins and providers
app.configure(express.rest());
app.configure(socketio());
app.configure(sequelize);

// Configure other middleware (see `middleware/index.js`)
app.configure(middleware);

// Setup authentication
app.configure(authentication(app.get('authentication'))); // load settings from global config
app.configure(local());
app.configure(jwt());

// Set up our services (see `services/index.js`)
app.configure(services);

// Set up event channels (see channels.js)
app.configure(channels);

// Setup a hook to only allow valid JWTs to authenticate
// and get new JWT access tokens
app.service('authentication').hooks({
  before: {
    create: [
      authentication.hooks.authenticate(['jwt', 'local'])
    ],
    remove: [
      authentication.hooks.authenticate('jwt')
     ]
  }
});

// Configure a middleware for 404s and the error handler
app.use(express.notFound());
app.use(express.errorHandler({ logger }));

app.hooks(appHooks);

module.exports = app;