API References

Who This Is For: Software developers, API consumers, integration engineers, and technical architects working with REST APIs, SDKs, or programmatic interfaces.

When to Use This Guide: You're integrating with third-party APIs, building client applications that consume APIs, troubleshooting API calls, or need detailed technical specifications for endpoints, parameters, and responses.

What You'll Learn: Complete API endpoint documentation, authentication methods, request/response formats, error codes, rate limiting, SDK usage examples, and best practices for API integration.

Overview

API references serve as your technical contract with developers. Good API documentation is precise, complete, and includes working code examples in multiple programming languages. Whether you're documenting a REST API, GraphQL endpoint, or SDK library, this guide shows the essential components every API reference needs.

Real-World Scenario: You've built a payment processing API that other companies will integrate into their applications. Developers need to understand authentication flows, test endpoints in sandbox mode, handle webhook events, and process refunds. Clear API documentation with code examples in Python, JavaScript, and cURL commands is critical for developer adoption and reducing integration support burden.

What Makes Great API Documentation

Essential Components

1. Authentication & Authorization - API keys, OAuth flows, JWT tokens
2. Endpoint Reference - Complete list of available endpoints with HTTP methods
3. Request/Response Examples - Real code samples in multiple languages
4. Error Handling - Comprehensive error codes and troubleshooting
5. Rate Limits & Quotas - Usage restrictions and best practices
6. Webhooks & Events - Real-time notifications and callbacks
7. SDKs & Libraries - Client libraries and code generators

API Documentation Structure

Standard Format for Each Endpoint

### POST /api/v1/resource

**Description:** Brief explanation of what this endpoint does

**Authentication:** Required - API Key or OAuth 2.0

**Request Parameters:**
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|-----------|------|----------|-------------|
| name | string | Yes | Resource name |
| type | string | No | Resource type |

**Request Example:**
```json
{
  "name": "Example Resource",
  "type": "document"
}

Response (200 OK):

{
  "id": "res_12345",
  "name": "Example Resource",
  "created_at": "2026-01-20T10:00:00Z"
}

Error Responses:

• 400 Bad Request - Invalid parameters
• 401 Unauthorized - Missing or invalid API key
• 429 Too Many Requests - Rate limit exceeded

## Coming Soon

We're actively building comprehensive API documentation for:
- RESTful API endpoints
- WebSocket connections
- GraphQL queries and mutations
- Authentication flows
- SDK libraries (JavaScript, Python, Java, Go)
- Webhook integrations