API discoverability — the power for builders to truly discover your API and use it — has all the time been necessary, however it’s turning into more and more extra necessary as AI brokers change into 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 arduous 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.
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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 trade must get to a degree the place an API is really easy to digest that it’s identical to constructing with LEGO.
“You seize the items that you simply want, put them collectively, after which you have got a full software and also you make an agentic workflow out of it the place if this occurs, an agent can begin operating and you’ll 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 mentioned.
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 immediately, verified them, and put them on the general public community as a result of all people’s gonna want a verified place quickly. Individuals began with unverified MCP servers, and there’s a threat there that for those who simply begin having your brokers be linked to unverified MCP servers, it’s identical to distant injection,” Asthana mentioned.
Postman additionally launched an replace to its platform that allows any public API on its community of over 100,000 public APIs to be was an MCP server, making it extra necessary than ever that API builders guarantee their APIs are discoverable by the individuals that may wish to use them.
Chin mentioned that what is usually seen of APIs is just the tip of the iceberg. “We solely see the highest perhaps 10 %. These are the exterior APIs that get all of the hype. Nearly all of companies are inner to us, and people are those that when MCP begins to essentially take off, these are the APIs which might be 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 arduous to get your title on the market and have model recognition once you’re simply beginning out,” he mentioned. “We construct within Postman to assist individuals uncover us after which subsequently after they do, they determine what we’re about and easy methods to use the merchandise.”
He mentioned that the Postman community is nice as a result of for those who’re doing something in public, you’re on it, and meaning you’ll be able to come up in search and be found.
“If I’m searching for companies that supply caching, Momento goes to slip as much as the highest as a result of we’ve finished a whole lot of work on standing out,” he mentioned.
He has a couple of primary 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 making certain they’re doing primary greatest practices that each API proprietor ought to do, comparable to establishing simple auth.
“Postman has an incredible 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 really walks you thru precisely easy methods to get it after which places that API key in the proper spot for you.”
One other suggestion is to verify your public profile is crammed out. The general public profile consists of all the things 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, rising confidence amongst API shoppers. 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 for those who construct issues in a approach that tells a narrative and that pushes your branding, it actually helps to get observed,” Helton mentioned. “It helps along with your search engine outcomes. It helps individuals get a really clear and instant concept of what they will do along with your companies. Simply sort of weave in your character into all of the completely different areas that Postman means that you can have wealthy textual content and pictures.”
One other common API writer on the community is PayPal, and Brendan Lane, senior director of developer merchandise on the firm, mentioned that the discoverability facet of the community can be an enormous a part of their technique.
“We’re a really large ecosystem,” he mentioned. “We’ve got a whole lot of instruments that is perhaps helpful for various individuals or firms. One of many issues that Postman actually helps us do is clarify very merely and clearly what you want and easy methods to hook it up.”
PayPal launched its personal MCP Server as a Postman Assortment earlier this week. Based on Lane, this opens up entry to quite a lot of commerce instruments which might be helpful for AI.
“The general public community makes it very simple for individuals to grasp and uncover instruments throughout completely different firms or various kinds of instruments, after which make it very simple to compose experiences collectively,” he mentioned.
Disclosure: The reporter’s journey to POST/CON, together with flights, resort, and meals, was coated by Postman. The reporter additionally acquired a bag of convention merchandise.
