For posterity:

defmodule Test do
  @keys ~w(a b c)a
  @type key :: unquote(Enum.reduce(@keys, &{:|, [], [&1, &2]}))
end

This is a great snippet! Here’s a function form of this:

defmodule TypeUtils do
  # https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/dynamically-generate-typespecs-from-module-attribute-list/7078/5
  def list_to_typespec(list) when is_list(list) do
    Enum.reduce(list, &{:|, [], [&1, &2]})
  end
end

Usage example:

  @statuses [:not_started, :completed]
  @type status :: unquote(TypeUtils.list_to_typespec(@statuses))

In both @spec and @type you need to wrap everything in unquote call. Without that instead of calling function/macro the AST of such call would be stored:

iex> quote do
iex>   union_type(@keys)
iex> end
{:union_type, [],
  [{:@, [context: Elixir, import: Kernel], [{:keys, [context: Elixir], Elixir}]}]}

__using__/1 macro is as same as any other macro. use MyModule works like require MyModule + MyModule.__using__([]).

You can also write a macro like this one:

defmodule UnionType do
  defmacro union_type({:"::", _, [{name, _, _}, data]}) do
    quote bind_quoted: [data: data, name: name] do
      @type unquote({name, [], Elixir}) :: unquote(UnionType.union_type_ast(data))
    end
  end

  def union_type_ast([item]), do: item
  def union_type_ast([head | tail]), do: {:|, [], [head, union_type_ast(tail)]}
end

defmodule Example do
  import UnionType
  @keys ~w(a b c)a
  union_type key :: @keys
end

However for this you need to add this option:

[
  # …
  locals_without_parens: [union_type: 1]
]

to .formatter.exs, because otherwise it would format your code to:

defmodule Example do
  import UnionType
  @keys ~w(a b c)a
  union_type(key :: @keys)
end