Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Principles of Awesome APIs and How to Build Them.
Search
Keavy McMinn
November 18, 2019
Programming
126
17k
Principles of Awesome APIs and How to Build Them.
Keavy McMinn
November 18, 2019
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Keavy McMinn
See All by Keavy McMinn
Improving your workflow with the GitHub API
keavy
9
940
The Successful Shipper
keavy
8
500
Integrations
keavy
3
690
How to mend a broken identity
keavy
0
230
Better work, through better feedback.
keavy
1
530
Internal Tools
keavy
9
1.6k
Must. Try. Harder.
keavy
0
530
Career Health Check
keavy
0
310
From Artist To Programmer
keavy
1
450
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
物語を動かす行動"量" #エンジニアニメ
konifar
14
5.7k
AIを活用し、今後に備えるための技術知識 / Basic Knowledge to Utilize AI
kishida
8
2k
Introducing ReActionView: A new ActionView-compatible ERB Engine @ Rails World 2025, Amsterdam
marcoroth
0
130
The Past, Present, and Future of Enterprise Java
ivargrimstad
0
280
レガシープロジェクトで最大限AIの恩恵を受けられるようClaude Codeを利用する
tk1351
4
1.5k
【第4回】関東Kaggler会「Kaggleは執筆に役立つ」
mipypf
0
980
Google I/O recap web編 大分Web祭り2025
kponda
0
2.9k
CSC305 Summer Lecture 12
javiergs
PRO
0
130
TanStack DB ~状態管理の新しい考え方~
bmthd
2
370
FindyにおけるTakumi活用と脆弱性管理のこれから
rvirus0817
0
270
コンテキストエンジニアリング Cursor編
kinopeee
1
730
KessokuでDIでもgoroutineを活用する / Go Connect #6
mazrean
0
130
Featured
See All Featured
RailsConf 2023
tenderlove
30
1.2k
Optimizing for Happiness
mojombo
379
70k
Making the Leap to Tech Lead
cromwellryan
134
9.5k
Writing Fast Ruby
sferik
628
62k
The World Runs on Bad Software
bkeepers
PRO
70
11k
Let's Do A Bunch of Simple Stuff to Make Websites Faster
chriscoyier
507
140k
Rails Girls Zürich Keynote
gr2m
95
14k
Producing Creativity
orderedlist
PRO
347
40k
ピンチをチャンスに:未来をつくるプロダクトロードマップ #pmconf2020
aki_iinuma
126
53k
Typedesign – Prime Four
hannesfritz
42
2.8k
Bootstrapping a Software Product
garrettdimon
PRO
307
110k
Done Done
chrislema
185
16k
Transcript
Principles of Awesome APIs and How to Build Them. Keavy
McMinn, Fastly RubyConf 2019 @keavy
None
None
None
Try to work with the wind, don't fight it all
the time.
Consistent. Stable. Well-documented.
APIs: Our experience as consumers
APIs: Our experience as producers
APIs: Our experience as producers Fixing it would actually break
it.
APIs: Our experience as producers
Application Programming Interface
None
APIs = Constraints
Work with the constraints.
Remember these constraints are good for us too.
None
None
None
Consistent
Consistent Consistent data
✅ { "admin": true } ❌ { "admin": "1" }
API Descriptions — JSON Schema — Open API (formerly Swagger)
— RAML — APIs.json — API Blueprint — Postman Collections — Async API
Consistent Have one source of truth.
Have one source of truth. JSON Schema
JSON Schema committee gem https://github.com/interagent/committee
JSON Schema PRMD gem https://github.com/interagent/prmd
JSON Schema Online examples http://bit.ly/heroku-schema
It will be amaaazing!
Consistent Monitor your inconsistencies.
Monitor your inconsistencies. Compare what you say and what you
do.
Monitor your inconsistencies. Try a portion of your API
Monitor your inconsistencies. Technical deep dive
Monitor your inconsistencies. Technical deep dive https://github.com/whitequark/parser
# Get a dog. get "/dogs/:dog_id" do authorize_access :users, :bots
# finds the dog # renders the dog as JSON end
Then it will be amaaazing!
Stable
Stable Invest in upfront design.
Invest in upfront design. — What will users do with
it? — What does your business need from it? — What does it look like? — What will you call it?
Remember: puppies APIs are for life not just for Christmas!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27587002@N07/5170590074
Design while the cost of change is low.
Stable A calm space.
metoffice.gov.uk
Stable
Change itself is not necessarily bad. Negative impact from change
is bad.
Minimize the negative impact
Well-documented
Well-documented Inform users about everything, early and often
Well-documented Then remember that people don’t read.
Well-documented Enable a holistic view. — Endpoints that are undocumented
— Endpoints that are in any special phase — Anything to be deprecated — Dates
Well-documented Governance
Well-documented Shared understanding is easier when it’s all written down.
Well-documented Internal guides
Well-documented API Styleguide
API Styleguide Avoid verbs and adjectives ❌ GET /pets/most-recent ✅
GET /pets?sort=date-added
API Styleguide Make exceptions deliberately GET /repos/:owner/:repo/releases/latest
Well-documented Internal guides
Well-documented Who is responsible for what?
Well-documented Who gets a say in decision making?
It doesn’t have to be fucking hard. It just has
to be consistent. Which is fucking hard. — Brett Sutton, Triathlon coach
Good luck! Thank you, @keavy