Is REST Dead... Again?

Kelsey Hightower is an interesting person to follow. His genuine curiosity about different tech is very infectious, and this week, he dug into MCP and came up with a few thoughts.

This one is interesting, and some replies note that REST already includes these features, but most people don't implement them correctly. However, he makes a point about many APIs requiring multiple API calls to complete a task — hello, Arazzo — an interesting thread to look into.

My final takeaway is that, initially, they said AI would replace web frameworks and let us write close to the browser, but that turned out not to be true, along with many other predictions.

So, rather than make wild predictions, keep learning and see where things end up.

-- Alexander

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The API Roundup

API News, links, and tools from around the web

Accountability, APIs, and the United States of Surveillance

Matthew shared his article in our Slack community, but the message hit home hard as I read it, so it went to the top of the stack. In Matthew's own words:

This article looks at how familiar technical patterns - API access, identity resolution, data enrichment, and permissive authorization models -enable surveillance and intimidation at scale. Not through exotic technology, but through ordinary, well-designed systems doing exactly what they were built to do.

It's an insightful editorial on the role of devs existing in a complicated world, and we highly recommend giving it a read. In case you were at all confused on where we stand: FUCK ICE.

The Rise and Rise of FastAPI

FastAPI is a very popular web framework for building APIs in Python. Well, the same incredible people behind the documentaries for Vite, React, Node, and so many more have done one on FastAPI. As with all Cult Repo documentaries, it's totally worth watching.

Vercel vs Netlify vs Cloudflare: Serverless Cold Starts Compared

A breakdown of cold starts across Cloudflare, Netlify, and Vercel, with some useful conclusions about how quickly APIs were served, warm vs cold requests, and more. With more and more serverless API being deployed, it's definitely worth a read.

JavaScript: Backend Frameworks

JavaScript's annual survey results dropped, and the backend results are very interesting. ExpressJS is still at the top of the pack, with NestJS usage continuing to rise. Hono is near the top in interest and rated highly for satisfaction.

Hono CLI

Hono is a delightful, lightweight web framework that, from personal experience, is a delight to use. Well, they have been hard at work and have released another tool to improve the developer experience. A CLI for developers and agents, with docs, search, trigger requests, optimise your app, and more. Can not wait to start making this part of my dev flow.

httpx

I love it when a tool I have not seen before lands on my desk, and this one's interesting. This command-line tool lets you run multiple HTTP probers simultaneously to test or verify information on web servers, URLs, and other HTTP elements.

APIs You Won't Hate

Articles written and shared in our free Slack community.

Alternatives to Postman

Our rundown on viable alternatives to Postman is doing the rounds again - more and more devs are changing the way they integrate tooling into their workflow for building and testing APIs, and tools like Bruno and Insomnia offer great devX without vendor lock-in.

From our Community

Articles written and shared in our free Slack community.

Apitally Now Supports OpenTelemetry Tracing

Simon Gurcke has been showing off his indie project in our Slack community for a while now. He recently released an update that adds OpenTelemetry tracing, keeping your metrics, logs, and traces for your APIs in one place. Keep up the great work, Simon.

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