# Vendor facets — IBM API Connect. Products bundle APIs with Plans that carry rate limits, published to a
# Drupal-based Developer Portal where developers browse, test and subscribe; the DataPower API Gateway
# returns X-RateLimit-* headers with an IBM-specific "name=<plan>,<n>" value. Capability-only and thin:
# IBM's documentation pages refused our fetcher (403) or returned only indexes, so several rows rest on
# the product page and a community tutorial. What it cannot reach: headers in the provider's OpenAPI,
# served OAuth discovery, SDKs; MCP generation could not be verified.
vendor: ibm-api-connect
name: IBM API Connect
website: https://www.ibm.com/products/api-connect
areas:
- api-gateway
registry_keys:
- ibm-api-connect
rubric_schema_version: 0.22.0
generated: '2026-09-25'
features_refreshed: '2026-09-25'
basis: capability
summary: >-
  API Connect's lift sits on the developer portal and on plans: the Drupal portal lets developers browse,
  explore, test and subscribe to Products, and Plans carry rate limits a provider can publish — so the
  portal set, and possibly plans and rate-limit documentation, land once the provider declares and publishes
  them. The gateway's X-RateLimit-* headers match the rubric's header pattern, but only count when declared
  in the provider's OpenAPI. MCP tooling appears in IBM's documentation index but no page we could fetch
  described it, so it is not mapped.
features:
- id: developer-portal
  name: Drupal-based Developer Portal
  description: >-
    Developers browse, explore, test and subscribe to API Products; customizable Drupal theme, blogs,
    forums, ratings, consumer organizations and usage dashboards.
  source: https://www.ibm.com/products/api-connect/developer-portal
  tier: paid
- id: products-plans
  name: Products and Plans with rate limits
  description: >-
    Products group APIs and Plans; lifecycle managers choose which Plans developers can subscribe to in
    the portal, a developer subscribes to one Plan per Product, and different Plans implement different
    rate limits (with monetization referenced).
  source: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/api-connect/software/10.0.8_lts?topic=applications-working-products
  tier: paid
- id: ratelimit-headers
  name: X-RateLimit-* headers on plan rate limits
  description: >-
    A community tutorial shows the gateway returning X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset
    with values in the form name=rate-limit,10.
  source: https://github.com/ozairs/apiconnect/blob/master/rate-limit/README.md
  tier: paid
- id: portal-community
  name: Portal blogs, forums and ratings
  description: Community engagement features built into the portal.
  source: https://www.ibm.com/products/api-connect/developer-portal
  tier: paid
maps:
- feature: developer-portal
  check: portal_present
  layer: composite
  provider_must: Declare the portal URL as a DeveloperPortal entry in apis.yml common[].
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.228
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 4
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.633
- feature: developer-portal
  check: console_or_sandbox
  layer: composite
  provider_must: Declare the portal's test/explore page as a Console entry in apis.yml common[].
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.089
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 3
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.332
- feature: developer-portal
  check: api_reference_present
  layer: composite
  provider_must: Declare the Product API pages as an APIReference entry in apis.yml common[].
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.222
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 3
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.942
  saturated: true
  saturated_note: >-
    94% of providers with a contract, docs and a reference already earn this; the vendor cannot move it
    for most of its buyers.
- feature: portal-community
  check: support_channel
  layer: composite
  provider_must: Enable and staff the forums, and declare them as a Community entry in apis.yml common[].
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.45
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 2
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.69
- feature: products-plans
  check: plans_present
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: >-
    Only if the Plans are visible on public portal pages — we could not fetch a page showing whether anonymous
    visitors see Plans, and the plans artifact is harvested from public pages.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.172
  facet: access_clarity
  points: 8
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.44
- feature: products-plans
  check: rate_limits_documented
  layer: composite
  conditional: true
  condition: Only if the Plan rate limits are displayed publicly so the rate_limits artifact can be harvested.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.145
  facet: operational_transparency
  points: 8
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.438
- feature: ratelimit-headers
  check: rate_limit_signal
  layer: agent_readiness
  grade: documented
  partial: true
  partial_note: >-
    The header names match score.rb's /\A(x-)?ratelimit/ pattern, but `verified` reads them from the provider's
    OpenAPI responses, and nothing fetched shows API Connect writing them into the published spec. The
    vendor alone reaches the `documented` fallback through published plan limits.
  points: 7
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.381
earns_nothing:
- feature: products-plans
  check: pricing_link
  why: Plans are access and rate tiers; nothing fetched shows a public pricing page generated from them.
out_of_reach:
  checks:
  - sdk_count_1
  - sdk_count_3
  - cli_present
  - idempotency
  - dry_run_mode
  - reversibility_documented
  - auth_clarity
  - delegated_identity
  - dynamic_client_registration
  - protected_resource_metadata
  - well_known_published
  - mcp_server
  - llms_txt_published
  - agent_card
  note: >-
    Nothing we could fetch shows API Connect serving discovery or protected-resource documents, llms.txt
    or an MCP server on the provider's host; mcp_server is listed here because it is unverified, not because
    IBM lacks it.
unscored_practice:
- feature: ratelimit-headers
  why: >-
    The name=<policy>,<n> value format carries the policy name inside the header value; a client expecting
    a bare integer has to parse it. No check reads header values, only names.
surface:
  operational_transparency:
    reachable: 8.0
    total: 38
  developer_ergonomics:
    reachable: 12.0
    total: 42
  access_clarity:
    reachable: 8.0
    total: 38
  agent_readiness:
    reachable: 3.5
    total: 139
hard_rule: >-
  A model, not a score. Adopting this vendor changes a provider's Kin Score only when the provider publishes
  the resulting artifacts on its own surface; nothing here writes a score, and no sponsorship or partnership
  can.
method: searched
source:
- https://github.com/ozairs/apiconnect/blob/master/rate-limit/README.md
- https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/api-connect/software/10.0.8_lts?topic=applications-working-products
- https://www.ibm.com/products/api-connect/developer-portal
measured:
  cohort:
    method: vendors-catalog.json detections (CNAME / header / URL shape / markup), never a name match
    detected: 0
    in_baseline: 0
  control:
    basis: providers earning contract_present + documentation_present + api_reference_present, minus the
      cohort
    n: 5216
  metric: >-
    cohort_pct / control_pct = mean share of the check's points earned (derived and platform credit weighted),
    x100
  measured_on: '2026-09-25'
  status: 'not measurable: 0 detected customers clear the baseline (need 20)'
simulation:
  simulated_on: '2026-09-25'
  rubric: 0.23.0
  population: providers publishing a contract (contract_present earned), replayable exactly
  providers: 8977
  providers_unreplayable: 987
  providers_moved: 8221
  conditional_rows: excluded (they depend on what the API already does)
  composite_lift:
    median: 3.1
    p75: 4.7
    p90: 5.7
    max: 5.8
    mean_among_movers: 3.4
  agent_readiness_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.0
    p90: 2.5
    max: 3.0
    mean_among_movers: 2.5
  facet_lift_median_among_movers:
    developer_ergonomics: 16.7
  composite_band_moves:
    thin -> developing: 1265
    developing -> strong: 416
    emerging -> thin: 302
    strong -> exemplar: 80
    minimal -> emerging: 3
  agent_readiness_band_moves:
    agent-aware -> agent-ready: 284
    agent-ready -> agent-native: 24
  method: >-
    each provider's own kin/checks file, the vendor's maps at their stated credit, the scorer's composite
    formula; from -> to, nothing written