API discoverability — the power for builders to truly discover your API and use it — has at all times been necessary, but it surely’s changing into more and more extra necessary as AI brokers change into extra prevalent.
“In case your APIs are mendacity round and so they’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 Instances at POST/CON, the corporate’s consumer 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 Instances that the business must get to some extent the place an API is really easy to digest that it’s similar to constructing with LEGO.
“You seize the items that you just want, put them collectively, after which you’ve a full utility and also you make an agentic workflow out of it the place if this occurs, an agent can begin working 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 stated.
On the convention, Postman introduced that it launched a community for verified MCP servers. “We mainly took all of the distant MCP servers accessible at this time, 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 danger there that for those who simply begin having your brokers be linked 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 became 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 stated that what is usually seen of APIs is simply 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 providers are inner to us, and people are those that when MCP begins to actually take off, these are the APIs which can 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 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 arduous to get your title on the market and have model recognition whenever you’re simply beginning out,” he stated. “We construct inside Postman to assist individuals uncover us after which subsequently after they do, they determine what we’re about and how you can use the merchandise.”
He stated that the Postman community is nice as a result of for those who’re doing something in public, you’re on it, and which means you possibly can come up in search and be found.
“If I’m in search of providers that supply caching, Momento goes to slip as much as the highest as a result of we’ve performed quite a lot of work on standing out,” he stated.
He has a couple of primary 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 manner by making certain they’re doing primary greatest practices that each API proprietor ought to do, corresponding to organising straightforward 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 how you can get it after which places that API key in the precise spot for you.”
One other advice is to ensure your public profile is crammed out. The general public profile contains every thing 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 also assist, as verified publishers get a badge that basically proves that you just’re the area proprietor, rising confidence amongst API customers. Postman’s necessities for getting verified embrace 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 manner 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 quick thought of what they’ll do together with your providers. Simply form of weave in your persona into all of the totally different areas that Postman lets you 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 be an enormous a part of their technique.
“We’re a really massive ecosystem,” he stated. “We’ve quite a lot 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 how you can hook it up.”
PayPal launched its personal MCP Server as a Postman Assortment earlier this week. Based on Lane, this opens up entry to a lot of commerce instruments which can be helpful for AI.
“The general public community makes it very straightforward for individuals to grasp and uncover instruments throughout totally different corporations or various kinds of instruments, after which make it very straightforward to compose experiences collectively,” he stated.
Disclosure: The reporter’s journey to POST/CON, together with flights, resort, and meals, was lined by Postman. The reporter additionally obtained a bag of convention merchandise.
API discoverability — the power for builders to truly discover your API and use it — has at all times been necessary, but it surely’s changing into more and more extra necessary as AI brokers change into extra prevalent.
“In case your APIs are mendacity round and so they’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 Instances at POST/CON, the corporate’s consumer 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 Instances that the business must get to some extent the place an API is really easy to digest that it’s similar to constructing with LEGO.
“You seize the items that you just want, put them collectively, after which you’ve a full utility and also you make an agentic workflow out of it the place if this occurs, an agent can begin working 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 stated.
On the convention, Postman introduced that it launched a community for verified MCP servers. “We mainly took all of the distant MCP servers accessible at this time, 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 danger there that for those who simply begin having your brokers be linked 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 became 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 stated that what is usually seen of APIs is simply 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 providers are inner to us, and people are those that when MCP begins to actually take off, these are the APIs which can 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 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 arduous to get your title on the market and have model recognition whenever you’re simply beginning out,” he stated. “We construct inside Postman to assist individuals uncover us after which subsequently after they do, they determine what we’re about and how you can use the merchandise.”
He stated that the Postman community is nice as a result of for those who’re doing something in public, you’re on it, and which means you possibly can come up in search and be found.
“If I’m in search of providers that supply caching, Momento goes to slip as much as the highest as a result of we’ve performed quite a lot of work on standing out,” he stated.
He has a couple of primary 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 manner by making certain they’re doing primary greatest practices that each API proprietor ought to do, corresponding to organising straightforward 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 how you can get it after which places that API key in the precise spot for you.”
One other advice is to ensure your public profile is crammed out. The general public profile contains every thing 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 also assist, as verified publishers get a badge that basically proves that you just’re the area proprietor, rising confidence amongst API customers. Postman’s necessities for getting verified embrace 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 manner 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 quick thought of what they’ll do together with your providers. Simply form of weave in your persona into all of the totally different areas that Postman lets you 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 be an enormous a part of their technique.
“We’re a really massive ecosystem,” he stated. “We’ve quite a lot 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 how you can hook it up.”
PayPal launched its personal MCP Server as a Postman Assortment earlier this week. Based on Lane, this opens up entry to a lot of commerce instruments which can be helpful for AI.
“The general public community makes it very straightforward for individuals to grasp and uncover instruments throughout totally different corporations or various kinds of instruments, after which make it very straightforward to compose experiences collectively,” he stated.
Disclosure: The reporter’s journey to POST/CON, together with flights, resort, and meals, was lined by Postman. The reporter additionally obtained a bag of convention merchandise.
