APIk

APIk is an open-source platform for end-to-end API development and lifecycle management. It provides a cohesive toolbox for designing, implementing, testing, documenting, securing, deploying, and observing application programming interfaces across diverse environments.

Core components include a design studio for creating API contracts, a runtime for hosting services, a testing engine for contract and integration tests, and an automated documentation generator that exports machine-readable specifications such as OpenAPI or GraphQL schemas. APIk emphasizes a design-first workflow to align implementation with defined contracts.

The architecture of APIk is modular and plugin-friendly, enabling teams to assemble custom pipelines. It supports REST and GraphQL APIs, multiple programming languages, and containerized deployment. Key features also include mock servers, code generation for client SDKs, security policies, rate limiting, and observability hooks for metrics and tracing.

APIk originated as an open-source project with community-driven development in the early 2020s and has since gained a user base among mid-sized teams and startups. The project maintains documentation, a plugin ecosystem, and integrations with popular CI/CD tools and container orchestrators.

Licensing is typically described as permissive, with governance by a core maintainer team and a community contributor model. The project aims to complement existing API management capabilities by focusing on developer experience and interoperability.