APIdes

APIdes is a software platform for designing, testing, documenting, and governing application programming interfaces (APIs). It provides collaborative tooling to define API contracts, simulate behavior, generate client and server code, and publish user-friendly documentation. Although aimed at REST, GraphQL, and event-driven APIs, APIdes emphasizes a design-first approach, enabling teams to align on interface definitions before implementation.

Core features include a visual API designer for creating endpoints, schemas, and data models; mock servers that respond according to contracts; a contract testing framework; and versioned repositories to manage API lifecycles. The platform can import and export definitions in OpenAPI, RAML, GraphQL SDL, and AsyncAPI, and supports YAML and JSON formats. It also provides code generators for common languages and platforms, enabling client SDKs and server stubs to be produced automatically.

APIdes follows a design-to-deploy workflow: design API contracts, simulate and validate behavior with mocks, write and run contract tests, version and release changes, and publish documentation for developers and partners. Access controls, collaboration features, and change logs support governance and auditing across teams.

Origin and ecosystem: APIdes was developed to address API governance and collaborative design challenges and has been adopted by software teams ranging from startups to enterprises. It integrates with popular CI/CD systems, issue trackers, API gateways, and cloud platforms, and supports extensibility through a plugin architecture. The project is available in an open-source edition under permissive licenses, with optional enterprise editions offering additional security, scalability, and support.