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🔌 API Design & Usage Guidelines

This document defines the mandatory standards for designing, documenting, and consuming APIs within the organization.

It establishes a shared API governance model to ensure consistency, security, scalability, and ease of integration across all platforms.

📌 Governance Rule
Any API not compliant with these guidelines is considered non-standard and must not be exposed to consumers.

🎯 Purpose

The purpose of these guidelines is to:

  • Standardize API design and usage
  • Ensure clear ownership and accountability
  • Reduce integration errors
  • Improve security and maintainability
  • Enable scalable and reusable APIs

📋 Mandatory API Information

Every API must document the following information:

  • API name
  • Business purpose
  • Technical owner / responsible team
  • Target environment(s) (dev / qa / prod)
  • Authentication method
  • Version

🧱 Minimum Documentation Structure

Example

API Name: User Management API
Purpose: Manage system users and roles
Technical Owner: Backend Team
Environment: Production
Authentication: JWT / OAuth2

📌 This information must be available before the API is consumed.

📘 Documentation Standard

  • All APIs must be documented using OpenAPI
  • Documentation must be:
  • Accurate
  • Up to date
  • Accessible to consumers
  • Any breaking change must be reflected in:
  • API version
  • Documentation
  • Changelog

👍 API Best Practices

  • Use environment variables for configuration
  • Handle errors clearly and consistently
  • Version endpoints explicitly
  • Validate inputs and outputs
  • Return meaningful HTTP status codes
  • Avoid leaking internal or sensitive information

🚫 Prohibited Practices

The following practices are strictly forbidden:

  • 🚫 Hardcoded credentials in source code
  • 🚫 Exposing endpoints without documentation
  • 🚫 Skipping authentication or authorization
  • 🚫 Returning sensitive internal data

🔐 Security Considerations

  • Authentication and authorization are mandatory
  • Secrets must never be stored in code or repositories
  • API access must be auditable
  • APIs must be exposed only through an API Gateway

📌 Final Rule

If an API: - Is not documented - Has no clear owner - Exposes sensitive data - Bypasses the API Gateway

It must not be exposed or consumed by any application.