Slop APIs

The recent petition to ban AI code in Node.js caught my eye this week and stirred up more complex feelings about the changes in our industry. I see so many posts about focusing on the spec and design, and letting AI do the work. However, in my day-to-day, I see more slop, less thought, worse design.

It's almost as if giving people a lazy button has led them to either checking out or working in an echo chamber, thinking everything is solid gold. Don't let your API design skills atrophy; keep them sharp and functional.

AI or no AI, strong fundamental skills lead to better APIs.

-- Alexander

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The API Roundup

API News, links, and tools from around the web

GoDoc Live statically analyses your Go HTTP services

A wonderful tool for Go APIs. Build an interactive docs site and OpenAPI spec with GoDoc Live. It uses the same packages that the Go compiler uses to parse your source code and extract every route, parameter, request body, and more, then generate the site.

REST API vs GraphQL

A comparison of a REST API and a GraphQL API with visual breakdowns and trade-offs over different call types. Honestly, it looks great; however, that's where my adulation ends. Each test basically treats GraphQL as inherently better, overlooking benefits like HTTP/2 and HTTP/3, caching, API design, and how you use the API. I could easily knock out each test in reverse. There are real trade-offs between the two, but honestly, these tests are very misleading.

Testing unary gRPC services in Go

An in-depth guide to testing gRPC services, both the method logic itself and the HTTP server and gRPC layer. A great guide covering what each testing level gives you, and I love the section on testing errors.

Va Vite

Vite has taken the JavaScript world by storm over the last few years, dominating the frontend. Va Vite allows you to build server-side rendered applications; however, it also supports other server applications not related to SSR. With the introduction of Void0 from the Vite team (a JavaScript version of Laravel or Ruby on Rails), I wonder if this is still relevant. Fun tool either way.

Execute API workflows from YAML

A wonderful CLI tool that was added to our OpenAPI.tools site this week. Write your API workflow using the Arazzo spec, run it and then debug as needed. Honestly, I love this tool.

Spry

Spry, a Dart framework for building modern servers that you can deploy anywhere, recently added support for a UI for your OpenAPI spec via Scalar. Add a Scalar instance to your OpenAPIConfig, and you get a generated docs route that loads your spec.

APIs You Won't Hate

Articles written and shared in our free Slack community.

Anvil is the Data Company that makes PDFs a Breeze

Mang-Git Ng, founder and CEO of document tools company Anvil sat down with Mike to talk about PDFs in the age of LLMs, and making delightfully simple products.

From our Community

Articles written and shared in our free Slack community.

Four Open-Source Agentic Authorisation Alternatives

Bruno shared his article on different authorisation patterns for agents using an API, allowing you to remove a human from the loop. While I've recently been doing more and more of the work myself and trusting the agents less, it's still a great read with some options if this style of workflow is for you.

Thanks so much to our members: Kin, Juxt, Alex R, Nolan S, Brandon K, Frank, James D, Bill D, and Abdelhadi D. Your support means the world to us!

✌️ Until next time,
Alexander, Phil & Mike