API documentation
API documentation is written or generated material describing an application programming interface’s capabilities, operations, inputs, outputs, behavior, and usage.
Automating API Delivery
API reference documentation is human-readable documentation generated from an API definition that describes an API's operations, inputs, outputs, and usage contract.
- How it is used
- Publishes a human-readable account of API operations for consumers on a developer portal.
- How deep it goes
- Walks through static HTML generation, local serving, and republishing; warns that generation alone cannot correct drift between a definition and live behavior.
- Examples
- Uses a missing mandatory response field and a regenerated product response with two new attributes.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via Redocly CLI to generate and republish an API reference from an updated OpenAPI definition.
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Building Web APIs with ASP.NET Core
API documentation is structured information that explains an API's capabilities, endpoints, operations, inputs, outputs, and usage to its consumers.
- How it is used
- Supports third-party developers as they discover, evaluate, integrate with, and maintain an evolving web API.
- How deep it goes
- Explains audience needs, documentation practices, automated generation, and customization through OpenAPI and Swashbuckle.
- Examples
- Uses endpoint descriptions, parameters, responses, samples, grouped operations, swagger.json, and SwaggerUI testing.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via Swashbuckle to generate, test, and customize usable OpenAPI documentation for ASP.NET Core endpoints.
Read how Building Web APIs with ASP.NET Core explains API documentation →
Secure APIs
API documentation is written technical material that describes how to use an API and its available interface.
- How it is used
- Uses API documentation to discover the attack surface and apply security by design.
- How deep it goes
- Explains documentation’s security role and specification-recovery methods, but does not detail specification formats.
- Examples
- Uses FastAPI-generated documentation, Burp traffic interception, API writers, specialist services, and fuzzing.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate API security by obtaining a specification and using it to identify and control the attack surface.
Lead Developer Career Guide
Documentation that specifies an application programming interface's capabilities, endpoints, parameters, responses, and integration behavior.
- How it is used
- Helps developers use APIs through current, organized documentation and code snippets.
- How deep it goes
- Shows feedback-driven improvements and automated publishing, but does not detail endpoint specifications or response formats.
- Examples
- Uses Interswitch API documentation, Swagger publishing, Readme organization, and code snippets as examples.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate how automated publishing and organized documentation can address staleness and developer feedback.
Read how Lead Developer Career Guide explains API documentation →
Related concepts
- OpenAPI specificationproduced by · The OpenAPI Specification is a standard, machine-readable format for describing HTTP APIs, including their operations, inputs, outputs, data structures, and security requirements.
- FastAPIproduced by · FastAPI is a Python web framework for building APIs, with type-annotation-based request handling, validation, and automatic OpenAPI documentation.
- OpenAPI Generatorproduced by · OpenAPI Generator is a code-generation tool that creates client libraries, server stubs, and related artifacts from OpenAPI documents.
- how-to guidecontrasts with · A how-to guide is procedural documentation that provides ordered instructions for completing a specific task.
- AI agentused by · An AI agent is a computational system that uses artificial intelligence to interpret information, select actions, and pursue goals through interaction with an environment.
These guides are generated from the text of Manning books by Manning's knowledge graph and link to the sections they draw on. The full books are available on liveBook and at manning.com.