Practical Principles for Effective API Design
By
ahamez
Pulled from the oven just right. Trustworthy, fact-dense, deeply satisfying.
Summary
This article provides practical insights and best practices for API design based on the author's extensive experience building and using various types of APIs including public APIs for third-party developers, private internal APIs, REST and GraphQL APIs, and command-line interfaces. The author argues against overly complex or "fancy" approaches to API design, criticizing excessive focus on "real" REST purity debates, and instead advocates for practical, developer-friendly design principles that prioritize usability and functionality over theoretical perfection.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledMost of what modern software engineers do involves APIs: public interfaces for communicating with a program
I've spent a lot of time working with APIs, both building and using them
I think much of the advice floating around about API design is too fancy
People get wrapped up in what "real" REST is, or whether
You might also wanna read
Comparing gRPC vs REST for File Transfer: Implementation and Performance Analysis
This technical blog post explores whether gRPC or REST is better for file transfer implementations. The author compares both approaches by i
kreya.app·4mo ago
The Problem with Deprecation Warnings in Software Development
The article discusses the problem with deprecation warnings in software development, using the example of urllib's response.getheader method
entropicthoughts.com·5mo ago
Why Average LLM Use Is Likely Destroying Value in Software Development
The author argues that, contrary to prevailing hype, the average use of Large Language Models (LLMs) is likely destroying value rather than
unessays.substack.com·12h ago
How AI Accelerated Prototyping: From Idea to Tangible in Record Time
The author reflects on how AI has transformed their prototyping workflow. Previously, the biggest bottleneck was the time needed to scaffold
darylcecile.net·12h ago
GitLab 19.0 launches with Secrets Manager, agentic workflows, and self-hosted AI models
GitLab 19.0 has been released, positioning itself as an intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. The release includes expanded secr
bit.ly·1d ago
Centralizing Error Handling in Rust with Custom AppError Enums
This article discusses the importance of centralizing error handling in Rust applications using a custom AppError enum combined with map_err