Apideck Joins the OpenAPI Initiative

Today marks an important milestone in Apideck's journey. We're thrilled to announce that we've officially joined the OpenAPI Initiative (OAI) under The Linux Foundation, standing alongside industry giants to shape the future of API standardization.

This isn't just another membership announcement. For us, it's about giving back to the ecosystem that made our entire business possible and continuing our commitment to open-source development that benefits the entire API community.

Why We Joined the OpenAPI Initiative

OpenAPI has been the backbone that made Apideck possible. Every one of our 200+ unified API connectors is built on this specification. It's the common language that allows us to normalize disparate APIs from accounting, HRIS, CRM, and other categories into consistent, predictable interfaces.

Without OpenAPI, Apideck simply wouldn't exist in its current form. The specification enables us to:

Automatically generate SDKs for multiple programming languages
Maintain consistency across hundreds of different API providers
Provide predictable interfaces that developers can trust
Document complex integrations in a standardized way

As I often say internally: "It's time to stand behind the spec that has enabled us to build our company."

Joining OAI means we're not just using the spec to power our integrations, but actively contributing to its evolution. The Initiative is home to not just the OpenAPI Specification, but also emerging standards like Arazzo (for orchestrating complex multi-API workflows) and Overlay (for managing API versioning at scale).

Apideck's Representative at OAI

Samir Azmani will be representing Apideck at the OpenAPI Initiative. As our presentation, Samir will bring our unique perspective as a unified API platform to the specification development process, contributing insights from our experience normalizing 200+ APIs across dozens of categories. He'll be working alongside representatives from other member organizations to shape the future of API standards, with a particular focus on the challenges of API aggregation, and SDK Generation. We're excited to have Samir carry forward our commitment to open standards and collaborative innovation within the OAI community.

Our Open-Source DNA: Portman and Beyond

Our commitment to open standards isn't new. It's been part of our DNA from day one. We've been giving back to the community through open-source tools that make API development easier for everyone.

Portman: Bridging API Design and Testing

Portman created by its core maintainers Tim Haselaars and Nick Lloyd is an open-source CLI tool that has become essential for thousands of developers worldwide. Portman converts OpenAPI specifications into Postman collections with automated contract testing.

What makes Portman special:

Zero-code contract testing: Automatically generate comprehensive test suites from your OpenAPI specs
CI/CD ready: Integrate API testing seamlessly into your deployment pipelines
Variation testing: Create multiple test scenarios without writing a single line of code
Custom validators: Extend tests with your own validation rules
Full Postman compatibility: Leverage the entire Postman ecosystem

Since open-sourcing Portman, we've seen it adopted by:

Fortune 500 companies validating their API contracts
Startups ensuring API quality from day one
Open-source projects maintaining backward compatibility
AI developers validating agent-generated API calls

The 500+ GitHub stars and contributions from developers across the globe remind us daily that open source isn't just about code – it's about community. Portman demonstrates how OpenAPI specifications can be leveraged beyond documentation to create powerful testing workflows.

Leading the Way: The First Unified API Company in OAI

We're proud to be the first unified API company to join the OpenAPI Initiative. This isn't just a milestone for Apideck, it's a statement about where our industry needs to go.

Unified API companies bring a unique, hands-on perspective to standardization. We don’t just integrate with one or two APIs; we normalize hundreds across different software categories. This gives us a front-row seat to the challenges of inconsistency: how divergent implementations create friction, how the absence of standards slows innovation, and how well-defined specifications can unlock entire ecosystems. Our experience spans the full spectrum of API maturity, from elegant OpenAPI-first designs to legacy systems with sparse documentation, equipping us with practical insights to help shape the evolution of the specification.

The future of APIs isn't just about individual providers following standards – it's about the middleware layer that makes those APIs accessible and consistent. By having unified API companies at the table, we ensure that future specifications consider not just API producers and consumers, but the critical orchestration layer in between.

The AI Agent Revolution: Why Standards Matter More Than Ever

Here's what's changing: developers aren't the only ones reading API documentation anymore. AI agents are increasingly tasked with understanding, integrating, and orchestrating API calls autonomously. And here's the thing – AI agents need structured, standardized tool and API descriptions even more than humans do.

When an AI agent encounters an API, it can't rely on intuition or context clues like a human developer might. It needs:

Machine-readable specifications (OpenAPI) that clearly define every endpoint, parameter, and response
Consistent patterns across different APIs to reduce hallucination risks
Semantic clarity about what each API operation actually does
Standardized authentication flows it can navigate programmatically
Validation tools (like Portman) to verify its API calls are correct

OpenAPI provides all of this. It's the Rosetta Stone that allows AI agents to understand and interact with any API, regardless of its underlying implementation.

The MCP Revolution: How AI Agents Connect to Your APIs

The emergence of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is transforming how AI assistants interact with external systems. Understanding the difference between MCP and traditional APIs is crucial for modern developers.

MCP enables AI assistants like Claude to connect directly with data sources and APIs through standardized server implementations. Think of it as the bridge between AI's language understanding and your API's functionality. When combined with OpenAPI specifications, you get a powerful combination:

MCP handles the connection layer – how AI assistants discover and connect to your services
OpenAPI defines the interaction layer – what the AI can do once connected

We're already seeing developers build MCP servers that expose OpenAPI-documented APIs to AI assistants. This means an AI agent can not only understand your API documentation but actually execute API calls in real-time, with proper authentication and data handling. The key difference is that MCP provides a standardized way for AI to access tools and data, while APIs define the structure of that data and those tools.

For Apideck, this convergence is incredibly exciting. Our unified APIs, already built on OpenAPI standards, are perfectly positioned to be exposed through MCP servers. Unlocking use cases like AI Agents that can:

Pull customer data from any CRM through our unified interface
Create invoices across different accounting systems
Sync employee records between HRIS platforms
All through natural language commands, powered by standardized protocols

How Apideck Makes APIs AI-Ready

Our unified API approach isn't just about simplifying integrations for human developers – it's about creating a consistent interface that AI agents can reliably work with. When an AI agent connects to Apideck, it gets:

One standardized schema across 200+ integrations instead of learning hundreds of different API patterns
Predictable data models that reduce the risk of AI errors and misinterpretations
Clear semantic definitions that help AI understand not just the structure but the meaning of data
Consistent error handling that AI can programmatically respond to
Testing capabilities through Portman-generated test suites

Think about it: if you're building an AI agent that needs to sync customer data between systems, would you rather have it learn 50 different CRM APIs, or one unified interface that works the same way every time?

Open Standards Meet Open Source: The Perfect Marriage

What excites us most is how open standards and open-source tools reinforce each other:

Standards enable better tools: OpenAPI's consistency allows us to build powerful tools like Portman that work across any API
Tools validate standards: Our open-source projects help identify gaps and improvements needed in specifications
Community amplifies impact: Both movements thrive on collaboration and shared improvement
Transparency builds trust: Open standards and open source both prioritize visibility and accountability

What This Means for Our Customers

Our OAI membership reinforces our commitment to API excellence. For our customers, this translates into:

AI-ready integrations: Your APIs are immediately accessible to AI agents.
Industry-standard compliance: Build on specifications backed by the world's leading technology companies
Better testing capabilities: Leverage Portman and other tools built on OpenAPI standards
Future-proof architecture: As specifications evolve, your integrations remain compatible
Community support: Benefit from the collective knowledge of the OpenAPI ecosystem

Join Our Open-Source Journey

To our fellow API companies: consider not just joining the OpenAPI Initiative, but also open-sourcing your tools. The community benefits when we all contribute. Start by understanding the OpenAPI specification and how it can transform your API strategy.

To developers: check out Portman and our other open-source projects. Use them, improve them, and let us know what you need. Your contributions and feedback shape what we build.

To the open-source community: thank you for your contributions, issues, and pull requests. You make our tools better every day.

And to the OpenAPI community: we're excited to bring our open-source mindset to the specification development process.