All terms
Glossary
REST
A style for HTTP interfaces: resources with clear addresses, standard methods and stateless calls.
The advantage is reach: every language, every tool and every developer can use it without installing anything.
The style says little about details such as error formats, pagination or versioning. That is exactly where pleasant and painful interfaces part ways.
How you notice it
- An interface will be used by third parties.
- There are many different callers in different languages.
- Tooling should work without effort.
Frequently asked
How should a REST API be versioned?
Through the path, so /v1/, when a break is unavoidable, and otherwise not at all. Most changes can be additive: add fields instead of renaming, keep old fields for a while. Every version you avoid saves years of maintenance.