APIs
Public and internal APIs: design, auth, webhooks, quotas, and what callers — including other software — need back.
- Nov- 2026 -10 November
What to Check Before You Host a Small API
An API that serves twelve requests a minute feels finished the moment it answers the first curl command. The endpoint returns JSON, the logs show green, and the deployment script exits clean.
Read More » - Aug- 2026 -23 August
How to Explain Quota Errors on a Developer API
A quota error is one of the few things a developer API can say that sounds like a personal accusation. The request was valid. The key was correct. The endpoint existed.
Read More » - Aug- 2026 -5 August
What an API Should Return If the Caller Is an Agent
A REST endpoint that answers a browser and a REST endpoint that answers a language model are doing two different jobs, and most teams only staff the first one. The browser call is a request for data.
Read More » - Jul- 2026 -6 July
Retry Logic That Makes an Outage Worse
A retry storm has a signature. It shows up in the graphs as a cliff, not a slope: error rate ticks up, clients begin re-sending, and within seconds the volume of requests hitting the failing service i
Read More » - Jul- 2026 -3 July
REST vs GraphQL for a Small Product API
Two endpoints, one database table, and a payload that will never change: that is the whole API for a lot of small products. A settings screen, a list of items, a create form. Maybe a search box.
Read More » - Jun- 2026 -29 June
When a POST Needs an Idempotency Key
Stripe's API documentation says it plainly: if a request might be retried, give it an idempotency key. That single sentence hides a large amount of engineering judgment.
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