APIjev

APIjev is a proposed framework and collection of open web APIs intended to facilitate interoperability among software systems. It defines a baseline of API design conventions, discovery mechanisms, and governance practices designed to ease integration across platforms, devices, and services. The project emphasizes minimalism and reuse, proposing a core set of APIs for identity, data access, messaging, and orchestration, with extensions allowed through clearly defined extension points.

Technical approach: APIjev favors RESTful interfaces over HTTP with JSON payloads, standardized status codes, and resource-oriented URLs. Documentation is aligned with OpenAPI specifications and a machine-readable registry. Authentication and authorization rely on widely adopted protocols such as OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, while versioning follows semantic versioning; services are expected to advertise capabilities via a discovery endpoint.

Governance and development: The APIjev ecosystem is stewarded by a community foundation that maintains the core specification, certification tests, and conformance requirements. Participating organizations contribute implementations, tests, and governance input, with a lightweight process for proposing changes and deprecations.

History and status: Conceived as a community initiative in the early 2020s, APIjev matured into a documented standard with reference implementations and a certification program. Several municipal, educational, and cloud-native projects have published APIjev-compliant interfaces, reporting improved interoperability and reduced integration effort. Critics point to potential rigidity and a risk of fragmentation unless the ecosystem sustains broad participation.

See also: REST, OpenAPI, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect.