APIs that require event-driven or asynchronous communication must follow consistent standards for webhook registration, payload formats, retry policies, and delivery guarantees, enabling reliable and predictable event-driven integrations alongside synchronous request-response patterns.
APIs Support Event-Driven and Asynchronous Patterns
Policies
Async Webhooks (Design)
Require that any API delivering events to consumers describes its webhooks as first-class citizens in the contract, using the OpenAPI webhooks object to define the payloads, headers, and callbacks ...
Long Running Operations (Design)
Require that operations which cannot complete within a normal request window be modeled explicitly as asynchronous, long-running jobs rather than being forced into a single blocking call that ties ...
Idempotency (Design)
Require that state-changing operations be safe to retry, either because the method is inherently idempotent or because the API supports an idempotency key that lets a consumer replay a request with...
Hypermedia (Design)
Require that APIs return links alongside their data where it helps consumers navigate related resources, discover available actions, and follow state transitions without hardcoding URLs. APIs shoul...
Experiences
Consistency
Achieving consistency in the design, delivery, and maintenance of HTTP APIs across an enterprise is a significant challenge—one that often complicates API operations. Small differences, such as var...
Reliability
If an API isn’t reliable, consumers will eventually look for alternatives. Reliability starts with the platform and infrastructure where the API is deployed, but it also depends heavily on the pace...
Quality
The quality of HTTP APIs powering an enterprise tends to decline as the number of ungoverned APIs grows across internal, partner, and public landscapes. Low-quality APIs lead to poor downstream exp...
Interoperability
Interoperability is the experience of APIs, systems, and data working together without heroic effort. It is built on shared standards, common schema, and predictable contracts that let one system t...
Developer Experience
Developer experience is the sum of every interaction a developer has with an API, from the first time they land on the portal to the hundredth time they call an endpoint in production. It covers do...
