API discoverability — the power for builders to truly discover your API and use it — has at all times been vital, nevertheless it’s changing into more and more extra vital as AI brokers grow 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 onerous for individuals to construct brokers,” Abhinav Asthana, CEO and co-founder of Postman, instructed SD Instances 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, instructed SD Instances that the business 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’ve 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 believe 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 principally took all of the distant MCP servers out there at this time, verified them, and put them on the general public community as a result of everyone’s gonna want a verified place quickly. Folks 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 became an MCP server, making it extra vital 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 barely the tip of the iceberg. “We solely see the highest perhaps 10 p.c. These are the exterior APIs that get all of the hype. The vast majority of companies are inside 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, instructed SD Instances that a very powerful 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 straightforward to get misplaced within the weeds and it’s onerous to get your identify on the market and have model recognition if you’re simply beginning out,” he mentioned. “We construct within Postman to assist individuals uncover us after which subsequently once they do, they determine what we’re about and the right way 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 may come up in search and be found.
“If I’m on the lookout for companies that supply caching, Momento goes to slip as much as the highest as a result of we’ve finished a number of work on standing out,” he mentioned.
He has just a few important suggestions he’d give to different API builders seeking to stand out. First off is to ensure they’re not standing out in a foul method by making certain they’re doing primary greatest practices that each API proprietor ought to do, resembling organising straightforward auth.
“Postman has a terrific characteristic 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 the right way to get it after which places that API key in the best spot for you.”
One other advice is to ensure 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 primarily proves that you simply’re the area proprietor, growing confidence amongst API shoppers. Postman’s necessities for getting verified embody issues like having a verified area, organising 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 method 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 speedy thought of what they will do along with your companies. Simply form of weave in your character into all of the totally different areas that Postman permits you to have wealthy textual content and pictures.”
One other standard 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 also be an enormous a part of their technique.
“We’re a really large ecosystem,” he mentioned. “Now we have a number of instruments that is likely to 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 the right way 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 quite a lot of commerce instruments which are helpful for AI.
“The general public community makes it very straightforward for individuals to know and uncover instruments throughout totally different corporations or various kinds of instruments, after which make it very straightforward to compose experiences collectively,” he mentioned.
Disclosure: The reporter’s journey to POST/CON, together with flights, lodge, and meals, was lined by Postman. The reporter additionally obtained a bag of convention merchandise.
