API discoverability — the flexibility for builders to truly discover your API and use it — has all the time been essential, nevertheless it’s changing into more and more extra essential 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 laborious for folks to construct brokers,” Abhinav Asthana, CEO and co-founder of Postman, advised SD Occasions at POST/CON, the corporate’s consumer convention held this week in Los Angeles.
RELATED: Postman introduces Agent Mode to combine the facility 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 just want, put them collectively, after which you might 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 mentioned.
On the convention, Postman introduced that it launched a community for verified MCP servers. “We mainly took all of the distant MCP servers obtainable at present, verified them, and put them on the general public community as a result of all people’s gonna want a verified place quickly. Folks began with unverified MCP servers, and there’s a danger there that in the event you simply begin having your brokers be related to unverified MCP servers, it’s similar to distant injection,” Asthana mentioned.
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 essential than ever that API builders guarantee their APIs are discoverable by the folks that can wish to use them.
Chin mentioned 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. 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 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 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 laborious to get your title on the market and have model recognition while you’re simply beginning out,” he mentioned. “We construct inside Postman to assist folks uncover us after which subsequently after they do, they determine what we’re about and tips on how to use the merchandise.”
He mentioned that the Postman community is nice as a result of in the event you’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 searching for companies that provide caching, Momento goes to slip as much as the highest as a result of we’ve performed lots of work on standing out,” he mentioned.
He has a couple of essential suggestions he’d give to different API builders seeking to stand out. First off is to verify they’re not standing out in a nasty manner by guaranteeing they’re doing primary finest practices that each API proprietor ought to do, comparable to establishing straightforward auth.
“Postman has an ideal 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 truly walks you thru precisely tips on how to get it after which places that API key in the correct spot for you.”
One other suggestion is to verify your public profile is stuffed 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 also assist, as verified publishers get a badge that basically proves that you just’re the area proprietor, growing confidence amongst API shoppers. Postman’s necessities for getting verified embody 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 in the event you construct issues in a manner that tells a narrative and that pushes your branding, it actually helps to get seen,” Helton mentioned. “It helps along with your search engine outcomes. It helps folks get a really clear and instant thought of what they’ll do along with your companies. Simply type of weave in your persona into all of the totally different areas that Postman means that you can have wealthy textual content and pictures.”
One other in style API writer on the community is PayPal, and Brendan Lane, senior director of developer merchandise on the firm, mentioned that the discoverability side of the community can be a giant a part of their technique.
“We’re a really massive ecosystem,” he mentioned. “We have now lots of instruments that is likely to be helpful for various folks or firms. 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 straightforward for folks to know and uncover instruments throughout totally different firms or several types 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, resort, and meals, was lined by Postman. The reporter additionally obtained a bag of convention merchandise.
