# API

Concept · [Technical basics](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/technical)

Also called: application programming interface, APIs, endpoint, integration, webhook

Application programming interface. A defined way for one piece of software to ask another for information or to do something.

**For example:** Your app shows a map by asking a mapping service's API for it. It takes card [payments](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/payments) by sending the details to a payment company's API.

## Connects to (29)

- [Back end](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/back-end): The part of an app that runs out of sight on a server.
- [API key](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/api-key): A secret code that identifies your app to another service so that service will answer its API requests.
- [LLM](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/llm): Large language model.
- [REST API](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/rest-api): A common style of API where each kind of data lives at its own web address and software reads or changes it with standard web requests…
- [SDK](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/sdk): Software development kit.
- [Tool use](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/tool-use): A way for a model to ask the software around it to run a defined action, such as a search or a database lookup, and send back the result.
- [MCP](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/terms/mcp): Model Context Protocol.
- [Rate limit](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/rate-limit): A cap on how many requests or tokens an account can send to an API in a set period.
- [AI chat assistant](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/chatbot): A finished app where a person types or talks to an AI model and gets replies in conversation.
- [Model provider](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/model-provider): The company or service that runs an AI model and answers requests to it, usually over the internet through an API.
- [DX](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/dx): Developer experience: how easy and pleasant a tool, codebase or service is for the people who build with it, such as clear documentation…
- [JSON](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/json): JavaScript Object Notation.
- [OpenAPI](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/openapi): A standard format for describing what an API offers: its addresses, what each one expects and what it returns.
- [API contract](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/api-contract): An agreement on exactly what requests an API accepts and what responses it returns.
- [Promise chain](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/promise-chain): A way of writing code for steps that take time, such as network requests, so each step starts when the one before it finishes.
- [RSS](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/rss): A standard format websites use to publish a list of their newest posts so other software can check for updates automatically.
- [Headless commerce](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/headless-commerce): Running a store's products, cart and checkout on one system while building the shopping screens separately.
- [Developer relations](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/developer-relations): A role, often at platform companies, that helps outside developers use the company's tools through docs, examples, talks and community…
- [Sign in with ChatGPT](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/sign-in-with-chatgpt): A way for other apps and websites to let people log in with their ChatGPT account.
- [Amazon Bedrock](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/amazon-bedrock): An AWS service that gives access to AI models from several companies through one API, inside a company's AWS account.
- [Firecrawl](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/firecrawl): A service that turns web pages into clean text that AI models can use.
- [Genesys](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/genesys): A software company whose platform runs customer contact centers: phone, chat and email queues, routing and reporting.
- [Directus](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/directus): An open-source tool that puts an admin app and an API on top of a SQL database, so non-developers can manage the content.
- [Meta Conversions API](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/conversions-api): A Meta service that lets a business send sales and signup events from its own server to Meta, so ads can be measured without relying only…
- [Google Maps](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/google-maps): Google's map and directions service.
- [Twilio](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/twilio): A cloud service developers use to send and receive text messages, phone calls and email from their apps through an API.
- [Google Maps Platform Innovators](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/google-maps-innovators): A Google community program for developers who build with Google Maps Platform.
- [Clevyr](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/clevyr): A custom software company in Oklahoma City that has worked since 2009.
- [Open Tulsa Data Portal](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/tulsa-open-data-portal): The City of Tulsa's portal for public data, part of its Open Tulsa transparency initiative.

Map view: https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/terms/api