Design and Build Great Web APIs

Adopting the API-First Principle

The concept of API First has a long and varied history. Although the phrase has been in use for almost ten years (as of this writing), it’s become particularly popular over the last several years. For example, the website ProgrammableWeb ran a series called “Understanding API First Design” in 2016,^[7] and I still hear people mention this series when they talk about API First. A website created in 2013 was even dedicated to API First,^[8] although it hasn’t been maintained over the years. And a simple web search on the term “API First” brings up lots of related articles from all corners of the IT world targeted to a wide audience, from developers to CEOs.

I first heard about API First in 2009 in a blog post called ...