We’ve collected the best style guideline resources from across the web in one convenient place. Use these resources to plan out your next style guide for your organization’s API program.
Check back in a few weeks for news about an exciting new Stoplight feature available soon to create, share, and enforce API style guides, right within your workflow. Get on the email list for upcoming API Style Guide feature updates or join our Discord community to get the latest news.
Some Food for Thought
Here is a collection of thoughtful articles that explore the strategic need for API guidelines.
Author: James Higginbotham
In this article, James details what makes a great API style guide, how to avoid mistakes, and techniques to more easily achieve consistency.
Author: Ronnie Mitra
A fascinating look at how user interface design practices should shape your API designs.
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API Style Guides and the Quest for Web Service Consistency
Author: Dan Suciu
An accessible little article about the need for style guides. I like this writer’s voice.
Author: Jason Harmon
Explore a quick history of how API style guides came to be.
Get Into the Weeds
These more in-depth references will help give you a basic understanding of API guidelines and best practices for what to include.
Author: Anna Daugherty, Stoplight
Author: Mahesh Haldar
Author: Matt Heusser
Author: JJ Geewax
Author: Mark Masse
Examples of API Guidelines
Find a huge selection of real-world API style guides in the links below; these come in handy when creating your own guidelines.
Author: Arnaud Lauret
Author: Erik Wilde
Non-API Related Resources
These links share best practices about style guides in general, the inspiration for API guidelines. And who knows, you just might get inspired by reading them!
Author: Nic Evans
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