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Stage 1: Define

In the first stage of the API lifecycle, product managers and other stakeholders must define the operational, business, and security requirements for a single API or group of APIs. This requires them to agree on the API's intended use case—and identify the team members who will move it through each subsequent stage of the lifecycle. They should also create and configure a dedicated workspace where team members can collaborate, as well as a GitHub repository that is connected to a CI pipeline. These steps help stabilize the rest of the API lifecycle and establish locations and tooling for stage-specific work.

Sources:

https://www.postman.com/api-platform/api-design/

https://www.postman.com/api-platform/api-lifecycle/

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Step 1: Determine what the API is intended to do

Outcome

A public, read-only REST API that powers a single-page archive of my essays (grouped by year in "YYYY - MM DD — Title" format like James Clear). Readers can browse, search, and filter by year/month. I publish via Django Admin; once saved, posts appear immediately.

Personas & Scope

• In-scope (MVP): list posts, detail by slug, basic keyword search, year/month filters, stable URLs
• Out-of-scope: comments, auth for readers, tags UI, RSS, performance optimization, caching, sitemap

Success Criteria

• Functional: All core endpoints work correctly
• Publishing: Create in Admin → visible immediately (no extra steps)
• Search: Basic keyword search across title and content
• URLs: Stable slug-based URLs that won't break

Architecture Decisions

• Style: REST (DRF), public GET only; writes via Django Admin
• Versioning: /api/v1 for future compatibility
• Database: PostgreSQL (learning goal)
• Content: Markdown in database → HTML in API responses

Deferred to V2

• Performance requirements and caching strategy