---
published: true
layout: post
title: The Importance of an API Source of Truth
date: 2025-03-05 09:00:00+00:00
tags:
- Github
- Repositories
- Portals
- Workspaces
- Collaboration
image: https://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/algorotoscope-master/john-wayne-the-searchers-thinking-man-5.jpeg
---
Having a single place API producers can go to find everything for an API, as well as a single place API consumers can go to find everything for an API is important. Oftentimes this source of truth is an API portal, but it can also be a Git repository, or other workspaces. Just having a single unique URL for every API can reduce confusion, help settle disagreements, and goes a long way towards grounding discussion and collaboration between teams. It can’t be understated the importance a single source of truth will have downstream for both teams producing APIs, but also those who are putting APIs to work in applications and integrations.

- **Default Location** - When a source of truth exists as a repo in an organization or via a portal teams begin to default there when looking for an API. 
- **Machine-Readable** - Having a single source of truth opens up the opportunity for automating the discovery and publishing of API catalogs.
- **Ongoing API Manifest** - Every document and touch point with any system for an API can have outputs published to a manifest dedicated to each API.
- **Producer Time** - The amount of time that teams have to spend looking for an API and all of the supporting elements of an API is time and money.
- **Consumer Time** - The amount of time that application developers and integrators have to spend looking for an API and resources is time and money.

If an API is internal or in support of a 1st-party application then the time and money spent looking for APIs, documentation, sandboxes, SDKs, and other resources is time and money wasted by your organization. When producing APIs, the time and money spent looking for APIs, documentation, sandboxes, SDKs, and other resources is time and money wasted by your organization. An API is a very abstract thing. Is an API the backend code, what is published to an API gateway, or is it documentation, or some other element. The answer is D) All the Above. An API is the sum of all of its parts, and like the base URL allowing applications and other systems to access the resources an API provides, there should also be a single URL for humans to also access every aspect of an API.