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Engineering

API

An Application Programming Interface. The defined contract through which one piece of software talks to another.

An API is the agreed-upon interface one system exposes so that others can use it without knowing how it works inside. It defines what you can ask for, what you must send, and what you get back. Every integration. A mobile app talking to a server, two companies’ systems exchanging data, a website calling a payment provider, runs over an API.

A good API is a product in its own right: stable, documented, versioned, and designed so that the systems built on top of it do not break when it evolves. Treating an API as an afterthought is how integrations become brittle and expensive to change later.

Related terms

Working out whether you need API?

Definitions are the easy part. If you are trying to decide whether API belongs in your system, describe what you are building and a senior engineer will give you a straight answer, including when the answer is that you do not need it.

  1. 01A senior engineer reads it. Not a form queue, and not an account manager.
  2. 02We reply either with questions or with a straight answer that we are not the right fit.
  3. 03If it looks like a fit, a technical call with the person who would actually run the delivery.
  4. 04Then scope, effort and risk in writing, before anyone signs anything.
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