OpenAPI

non-cncf

Tech Writing Pass

GitHub Repository Official Website

Content Lifecycle & Evolution State

1

Initial Seed

Metadata Loaded

2

First Research

Automated Gathering

3

Tech Writing

Content Structured

4

Approval

Editorial Verified

Tech Writing Pass Completed: The technical overview and features have been structured by our autonomous content agents. Final editorial approval is pending.

Overview

The OpenAPI Specification (OAS) is a widely adopted standard for defining HTTP API interfaces. It enables both humans and systems to discover, understand, and interact with services seamlessly, eliminating the need to inspect source code or network traffic.

Key Features

Standardizes HTTP API interfaces, making them programming language-agnostic.
Allows discovery and understanding of a service’s capabilities without source code access.
Represented in both YAML and JSON formats.
Supports automated code generation for documentation, clients, and servers.

Use Cases

Use cases for machine-readable API definition documents include interactive documentation; code generation for documentation, clients, and servers; and automation of test cases.

Getting Started

Check out the list of current examples at https://learn.openapis.org/examples/ to see it in action, or find tools to create and present definitions.

Recent Updates

OAS 3.2.1 released corrections and clarifications to the table of Style Examples, additional notes on prohibited in/style/explode combinations, cross-references to RFCs, corrections to encoding objects usage, and clarification on path matching.

Did You Know?

The OpenAPI Specification is a community-driven open specification within the OpenAPI Initiative, a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project, and removes guesswork in calling a service by clearly defining interfaces.