Hey everyone, I'm really interested in how developers maintain their API documentation effectively. I want to know: How do you keep track of changes when you add, remove, or update endpoints? Have you experienced issues with inconsistent or incomplete documentation? And what's the biggest challenge you face while keeping API docs accurate for your team? I'm looking for tips to streamline the process and would love to hear about your experiences and any challenges you've faced. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
4 Answers
I'm currently working on a project called Voiden. Its goal is to provide a reliable, markdown-based API documentation repository that you can access offline. This setup allows you to have a single source of truth for your API documentation. To track changes, we use Git, which adds an in-app terminal to help. While no system can eliminate human error completely, this approach minimizes inconsistencies. My biggest headache was with Postman, and now it's mostly about whether to build my own missing plugins or wait for community support.
In my first job as a software engineer, we used the Open API generator, and it was super useful. You define your API in a specification.yml file, and whenever you build the project, it generates the endpoints directly from that YAML. If the API spec changes, you just update the YAML and rebuild—easy as pie! Then, you can deploy those changes and test them with Postman. Check it out at openapi-generator.tech!
Got it!
I often rely on Swagger and similar tools for managing API documentation. They make it much easier to keep everything updated.
I utilize my IDE's Javadoc, JSDoc, or Doxygen features to keep method and class comments up-to-date whenever I modify endpoints. After that, I use specialized tools to extract those comments into documentation objects. I’m a Jetbrains fan, and their tools handle this really well!
That's a really cool approach! I love the idea of a markdown + Git-driven flow, it sounds perfect for developers wanting more control. I'm working on something that's more SaaS-oriented—it imports Postman/Swagger specs, auto-generates AI-enhanced documentation, and hosts it for teams to share and test instantly. Do you think developers prefer a local-first model like yours over a SaaS solution, or does it vary by team?