I require that every production API defines a service level agreement and publishes it where consumers can find it, stating the availability, performance, and support commitments we are willing to stand behind. An SLA is a promise, and a promise that is not written down is not a promise at all, just a hope the consumer is left to guess about. I insist on this because integrators build real businesses on top of our APIs, and they deserve to know what reliability they can plan around and what recourse they have when we fall short. Every API that asks for production trust must define and publish its SLA as a governed part of its terms.
SLA Defined and Published
Rules
APIs.json SLA Info
APIs should declare a service level agreement so consumers can discover the uptime, performance, and support commitments backing the API. Declaring a property of type ServiceLevelAgreement in the A...
Experiences
Reliability
If an API isn’t reliable, consumers will eventually look for alternatives. Reliability starts with the platform and infrastructure where the API is deployed, but it also depends heavily on the pace...
Trust
Establish trust with API consumers will evolve and build over time, and is something that can be lost in a very short period of time. Trust will depend on other experiences like quality and reliabi...
Lifecycle
gavel Terms of Service Production
The terms of service are the legal contract sitting behind the technical one. Clear terms set the expectations between provider and consumer about acceptable use, liability, and change. I want the ...
