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Practical writing on designing, mocking, testing, and shipping APIs — and making them ready for AI agents.

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Writing API Descriptions an LLM Can Actually Use

A linter can tell you a description is missing. It cannot tell you the description is useless — and that is the one an agent chokes on. What belongs in a description, what to leave out, and how to check whether it worked.

AI AgentsOpenAPIAPI Design
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Migrating from Postman to an OpenAPI-First Workflow

The migration everyone postpones is almost entirely mechanical — and mechanical work is what agents are for. How an AI with an MCP connection imports your collections, rebuilds your assertions, and verifies its own work against your real API.

OpenAPIPostmanMigration
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Why Your OpenAPI Spec Drifts (and How to Catch It)

Every API contract decays the moment it stops being enforced. The four ways specs drift from reality, why code generation doesn't save you, and how to turn your spec back into a source of truth.

OpenAPIContract TestingAPI Design
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Consistent Error Handling with RFC 9457 Problem Details

Why every API needs exactly one error shape, how RFC 9457 Problem Details provides it, and the conventions — stable type URIs, validation extensions, safe detail fields — that make it stick.

API DesignError HandlingREST
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API Design Principles: A Practical Guide

The six design decisions that make or break an API: resource modeling, naming, idempotency, pagination, error formats, and versioning — with concrete examples.

API DesignRESTGuide
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Designing Agent-Ready APIs

AI agents are becoming API consumers. What that changes about API design — descriptions as prompts, error messages agents can act on, and why MCP is the new integration surface.

AI AgentsMCPAPI Design
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Design-First vs. Code-First API Development

Two workflows for building APIs, and why the order you write the contract in changes everything downstream: parallel work, review quality, and drift.

API DesignWorkflowOpenAPI
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Versioning APIs Without Breaking Your Consumers

What actually counts as a breaking change, why additive evolution beats version bumps, and how to run a deprecation your consumers will forgive.

API DesignVersioningBreaking Changes

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