API design & development

Area: Integrations & Technical Infrastructure · Usual shape: a documented interface · The consumer: other systems

An API is a contract: the moment someone uses it, changing it becomes expensive. So the work starts from design rather than code — what the resources are, how it authenticates, how it evolves without breaking whoever depends on it — then it is built and documented so an outside developer can use it without asking you.

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What this solves

A partner wants programmatic access and there is nothing to give them.
A mobile app needs a backend that does not exist.
A large system needs splitting into parts that talk to each other.
Point-to-point integrations have multiplied past the point of managing them.

What we build

Resource and operation design, before any code.
Authentication, permissions and scopes.
A versioning and backward-compatibility policy.
Usage limits and abuse handling.
Clear, actionable error responses.
Documentation sufficient for a developer you will never meet.
A sandbox for the people who will consume it.
Tests that protect the contract from breaking.

Where it is used

A partner wanting programmatic access to your data.
A mobile app that needs a backend.
A large system being split into parts.
Replacing scattered point-to-point integrations with one interface.

What this does not include

We do not supply an API gateway product or a developer portal as a product.
We do not offer uptime commitments.
We do not manage your relationship with the people consuming it.
We do not list the interface in external marketplaces on your behalf.

How the work goes

We design the contract before writing it, because it is the expensive part to change.
We agree the versioning policy up front rather than at the first breaking change.
We write the documentation as we build, not afterwards.
We test against the contract so a change that breaks a consumer fails here first.

System & service integrations
when you need to consume interfaces rather than provide one.
Web applications
when the product the interface serves needs building too.
Custom mobile applications
when the consumer is your own phone application.
Hosting, deployment & environments
when it needs an environment and a release path.

Questions about this service

Who will use this API?

That question shapes everything, and we ask it first. An interface for your own mobile app and one for external partners are different designs with different security and documentation needs.

How do we prevent abuse?

Authentication, scoped permissions and usage limits, designed in rather than added after an incident. What is appropriate depends on who the consumers are.

What happens when we need to change it?

The versioning policy agreed at the start is what makes that survivable. Changing a contract people depend on without one is where APIs earn their reputation.

Is documentation included?

Yes, and it is not optional. An interface a developer cannot use without phoning you is an interface that has not shipped.

Can it be built on top of an existing system?

Usually, and that is the common case. How cleanly depends on how that system is structured, which we assess before agreeing a scope.

Tell us who needs to reach your system.

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