API discoverability — the flexibility for builders to really discover your API and use it — has all the time been vital, however it’s turning into more and more extra vital as AI brokers turn out to be extra prevalent.
“In case your APIs are mendacity round they usually’re not discoverable or they’re not documented, then it’s going to be very exhausting for individuals to construct brokers,” Abhinav Asthana, CEO and co-founder of Postman, advised SD Occasions at POST/CON, the corporate’s person convention held this week in Los Angeles.
RELATED: Postman introduces Agent Mode to combine the ability of AI brokers into Postman’s core capabilities
API because the constructing blocks for brokers was a key theme on the occasion. Sterling Chin, senior developer advocate at Postman, advised SD Occasions that the business must get to a degree the place an API is very easy to digest that it’s similar to constructing with LEGO.
“You seize the items that you simply want, put them collectively, after which you may have a full utility and also you make an agentic workflow out of it the place if this occurs, an agent can begin operating and you may deploy it and redeploy and repair it with out having to the touch code. I feel that’s the way forward for agentic AI,” he stated.
On the convention, Postman introduced that it launched a community for verified MCP servers. “We mainly took all of the distant MCP servers out there as we speak, verified them, and put them on the general public community as a result of everyone’s gonna want a verified place quickly. Individuals began with unverified MCP servers, and there’s a danger there that when you simply begin having your brokers be related to unverified MCP servers, it’s similar to distant injection,” Asthana stated.
Postman additionally launched an replace to its platform that permits any public API on its community of over 100,000 public APIs to be was an MCP server, making it extra vital than ever that API builders guarantee their APIs are discoverable by the individuals that may need to use them.
Chin stated that what is usually seen of APIs is barely the tip of the iceberg. “We solely see the highest possibly 10 %. These are the exterior APIs that get all of the hype. The vast majority of providers are inner to us, and people are those that when MCP begins to essentially take off, these are the APIs which are going to blow everybody away.”
Making your APIs stand out
Allen Helton, ecosystem engineer at Momento, maker of reliability options and a buyer of Postman, advised SD Occasions that crucial profit they get out of Postman is that it permits their APIs to be simply found by builders.
“Being a small tech startup, it’s simple to get misplaced within the weeds and it’s exhausting to get your identify on the market and have model recognition while you’re simply beginning out,” he stated. “We construct within Postman to assist individuals uncover us after which subsequently once they do, they determine what we’re about and tips on how to use the merchandise.”
He stated that the Postman community is nice as a result of when you’re doing something in public, you’re on it, and which means you may come up in search and be found.
“If I’m on the lookout for providers that provide caching, Momento goes to slip as much as the highest as a result of we’ve achieved loads of work on standing out,” he stated.
He has just a few major suggestions he’d give to different API builders seeking to stand out. First off is to verify they’re not standing out in a foul approach by guaranteeing they’re doing fundamental finest practices that each API proprietor ought to do, resembling establishing simple auth.
“Postman has an amazing function the place everytime you paste a URL right into a request, it acknowledges ‘oh, that is Momento, do you want assist getting your auth token or API key?’ And it truly walks you thru precisely tips on how to get it after which places that API key in the precise spot for you.”
One other suggestion is to verify your public profile is stuffed out. The general public profile contains the whole lot an API writer owns, together with workspaces, collections, and API specs. He advises everybody to have a profile image and hyperlinks to their social media and web site on that web page.
Getting verified by Postman may even assist, as verified publishers get a badge that basically proves that you simply’re the area proprietor, growing confidence amongst API customers. Postman’s necessities for getting verified embrace issues like having a verified area, establishing authentication for public APIs, and having good documentation.
“What’s good about how Momento has used the Postman API Community is when you construct issues in a approach that tells a narrative and that pushes your branding, it actually helps to get seen,” Helton stated. “It helps together with your search engine outcomes. It helps individuals get a really clear and rapid thought of what they’ll do together with your providers. Simply sort of weave in your persona into all of the totally different areas that Postman permits you to have wealthy textual content and pictures.”
One other fashionable API writer on the community is PayPal, and Brenden Lane, senior director of developer merchandise on the firm, stated that the discoverability side of the community can also be a giant a part of their technique.
“We’re a really massive ecosystem,” he stated. “We’ve loads of instruments that could be helpful for various individuals or corporations. One of many issues that Postman actually helps us do is clarify very merely and clearly what you want and tips on how to hook it up.”
PayPal launched its personal MCP Server as a Postman Assortment earlier this week. In accordance with Lane, this opens up entry to plenty of commerce instruments which are helpful for AI.
“The general public community makes it very simple for individuals to know and uncover instruments throughout totally different corporations or various kinds of instruments, after which make it very simple to compose experiences collectively,” he stated.
Disclosure: The reporter’s journey to POST/CON, together with flights, lodge, and meals, was lined by Postman. The reporter additionally acquired a bag of convention merchandise.
