diff --git a/app/services/json_schema_loader.rb b/app/services/json_schema_loader.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f7d97e5009f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/services/json_schema_loader.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+# frozen_string_literal: true
+
+#-- copyright
+# OpenProject is an open source project management software.
+# Copyright (C) the OpenProject GmbH
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3.
+#
+# OpenProject is a fork of ChiliProject, which is a fork of Redmine. The copyright follows:
+# Copyright (C) 2006-2013 Jean-Philippe Lang
+# Copyright (C) 2010-2013 the ChiliProject Team
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+# Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
+#
+# See COPYRIGHT and LICENSE files for more details.
+#++
+
+class JsonSchemaLoader
+  def initialize(base_path: "docs/api/apiv3/components/schemas")
+    @base_path = base_path
+  end
+
+  def load(schema_name)
+    load_file("#{@base_path}/#{schema_name}.yml")
+  end
+
+  private
+
+  def load_file(file_name)
+    return schema_cache.fetch(file_name) if schema_cache.key?(file_name)
+
+    schema = YAML.load_file(file_name).deep_symbolize_keys
+    schema = resolve_references(schema, file_name)
+    schema_cache[file_name] = schema
+  end
+
+  def resolve_references(schema, file_name)
+    if schema.key?(:$ref)
+      ref_file = File.join(File.dirname(file_name), schema.fetch(:$ref))
+      return load_file(ref_file)
+    end
+
+    schema.to_h do |key, value|
+      next [key, resolve_references(value, file_name)] if value.is_a?(Hash)
+
+      if value.is_a?(Array)
+        next [
+          key,
+          value.map { |v| v.is_a?(Hash) ? resolve_references(v, file_name) : v }
+        ]
+      end
+
+      [key, value]
+    end
+  end
+
+  def schema_cache
+    @schema_cache ||= {}
+  end
+end
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/files/test_schema.yml b/spec/fixtures/files/test_schema.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cd4b4022007
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/fixtures/files/test_schema.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+type: object
+required: foo
+properties:
+  foo:
+    type: string
+    enum:
+    - one
+    - two
+    - three
+  referenced:
+    $ref: "./test_schema_reference.yml"
+  combined:
+    allOf:
+    - type: string
+    - $ref: "./test_schema_reference.yml"
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/files/test_schema_reference.yml b/spec/fixtures/files/test_schema_reference.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6ce481b7ecc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/fixtures/files/test_schema_reference.yml
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+description: "This is a referenced value."
diff --git a/spec/services/json_schema_loader_spec.rb b/spec/services/json_schema_loader_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..52c5ad8f008
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/services/json_schema_loader_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+# frozen_string_literal: true
+
+# -- copyright
+# OpenProject is an open source project management software.
+# Copyright (C) the OpenProject GmbH
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3.
+#
+# OpenProject is a fork of ChiliProject, which is a fork of Redmine. The copyright follows:
+# Copyright (C) 2006-2013 Jean-Philippe Lang
+# Copyright (C) 2010-2013 the ChiliProject Team
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+# Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
+#
+# See COPYRIGHT and LICENSE files for more details.
+# ++
+
+require "spec_helper"
+
+RSpec.describe JsonSchemaLoader do
+  subject { described_class.new(base_path: "spec/fixtures/files").load("test_schema") }
+
+  it "loads the schema as a aymbolized hash" do
+    expect(subject.dig(:properties, :foo, :type)).to eq("string")
+  end
+
+  it "resolves $ref attributes" do
+    expect(subject.dig(:properties, :referenced, :description)).to eq("This is a referenced value.")
+  end
+
+  it "resolves $ref attributes inside arrays" do
+    expect(subject.dig(:properties, :combined, :allOf, 1, :description)).to eq("This is a referenced value.")
+  end
+end
diff --git a/spec/support/matchers/match_json_schema.rb b/spec/support/matchers/match_json_schema.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8134ef049b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/support/matchers/match_json_schema.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# frozen_string_literal: true
+
+#-- copyright
+# OpenProject is an open source project management software.
+# Copyright (C) the OpenProject GmbH
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3.
+#
+# OpenProject is a fork of ChiliProject, which is a fork of Redmine. The copyright follows:
+# Copyright (C) 2006-2013 Jean-Philippe Lang
+# Copyright (C) 2010-2013 the ChiliProject Team
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+# Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
+#
+# See COPYRIGHT and LICENSE files for more details.
+#++
+
+RSpec::Matchers.define :match_json_schema do |expected|
+  chain :from_docs do |docs_schema|
+    @docs_schema = docs_schema
+  end
+
+  match do |actual|
+    raise ArgumentError, "Do not pass arguments to match_json_schema, when using .from_docs." if expected && @docs_schema
+
+    schema = @docs_schema ? JsonSchemaLoader.new.load(@docs_schema) : expected
+
+    validator = JSONSchemer.schema(schema)
+
+    @actual = validator.validate(JSON.parse(actual)).map { |result| result.fetch("error") }
+    @actual.empty?
+  end
+
+  failure_message do |actual|
+    actual.join("\n")
+  end
+
+  failure_message_when_negated do
+    "expected schema to not match, but it did."
+  end
+end