bit off

This month we will look into why that funny acronym HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the engine of application state) is making headlines as the fix for broken web APIs. We will take a dive from the history of hypermedia to agent affordances and a cure for bloated MCP servers. And also unwrap Arazzo 1.1, and learn how to do idempotency the right way.

After a February hiatus we will revisit MCP one year later. It looks like the pendulum is swinging back. Perplexity is moving to CLIs, critics are calling MCP dead, and Google is launching WebMCP on top of it all. Meanwhile, the emerging lesson is that “Agentic Experience” and User Experience aren’t either/or: what works for AI agents usually works for humans too. This issue also looks at token-efficient serialization formats gunning to become the JSON of the agentic era.

In the January issue, we admire the refreshed OpenAPI.tools, panic over the enshittification of API clients, take a tour of legacy API protocols, and pronounce GraphQL dead – again.

The end of the year is near, so I wanted to make a special edition of this newsletter – a holiday special. Surely you have a lot of stuff to read. But what about something to listen to?

In the October issue of API Dispatch, we’ll take a look at Postman’s State of the API report, highlighting the gap between AI-powered development and AI-ready APIs. We then dive into HTTP caching and the sharp edges you can still bleed on – range, content negotiation, transfer-encoding – and a few under-tested API injection paths. Mike Amundsen returns to tap the sign with his maxim – and to remind you that MCP is (still) not your app.

In the September API dispatch, we're celebrating the release of OpenAPI Specification 3.2. We'll also go over an important API design rule, check out the new RPC system for the web, and take a closer look at why HTTP/1 seems simple but isn’t. Read until the end for One Clever Trick for exfiltrating emails through MCP.

In the August edition of the API Dispatch, we will look into the flaws of MCP, the fallacies about versioning and HTTP, and we will say goodbye to Apiary.io.

The July installment of a monthly ‘newsletter’ about APIs. This issue looks back on API meetup, OpenAPI Spec 3.2, and a few optimistic opinions about MCP.

The June installment of a monthly ‘newsletter’ about APIs. This issue focuses on The Language-Oriented Approach to API development, along with TypeSpec, Smithy, and ALPS.

The April installment of a monthly ‘newsletter’ about APIs. This issue focuses on OpenAPI Spec tooling and API design.

The March installment of a monthly ‘newsletter’ about APIs. The issue focuses on Model Context Protocol and similar abstractions.

The first installment of a monthly ‘newsletter’ about APIs.

Based on my talk for PragueJS meetup from February 2024

Pick the cheapest geocoding API provider for your project. An impartial comparison of pricing for HERE, Google Maps Platform, Azure Maps, OpenCage, TomTom Maps, LocationIQ, and Nominatim.

Greenhouse Recruiting provides multiple APIs with different authentication mechanisms. We will show you which one to choose and give you example API calls in JavaScript.

Answers to common confusions about the new free and paid plans for Twitter API.

The nice and not-so-nice parts of LinkedIn's new, versioned Content APIs.

A single-serving site for checking the status of Twitter API paywall.

Dive into the Pocket's OAuth-but-not-quite authorization flow.

Get an API access to Instagram profile with Facebook Login. Code example for Node.js, Express, and Passport.

How to get account details from Instagram Graph API

First dive into Instagram Graph API: How to create a business account and a Facebook app.

Poorly documented API with weird behavior. Can it be any worse?

How to use native HTML forms validation in React and customize the validation messages.

Back in 2012 I have discovered a small social network. Now, after 10 years and over 5700 links posted, it's going away.