Design, document, govern, and test APIs design-first — with Stoplight Studio, Spectral, Prism, and Elements.

Welcome to Stoplight: Design-First API Development.

A practical, in-depth guide to Stoplight, the platform and toolset for design-first API development built on OpenAPI. Learn how to build better APIs: the API design problem (code-first pitfalls, inconsistency, doc drift), OpenAPI and the design-first approach, Stoplight Studio (visual design), Spectral (linting and governance), Prism (mock servers and contract testing), Elements (documentation), API governance and style guides at scale, and fitting design-first into Git and CI/CD workflows.

This title is part of the ShriIra library and is free to read in full, right here — our small contribution to making world-class knowledge easy to reach.

A note on reading it: open the Contents menu at the top of the reader to jump between chapters, use the Aa menu to set a comfortable text size, theme (light, sepia, or night), and single- or two-page layout. Your place is saved automatically, so you can always pick up where you left off.

We hope it serves you well.

— Shriira Press

Contents

1. Chapter 1 — What Stoplight Is
2. Chapter 2 — The API Design Problem
3. Chapter 3 — OpenAPI and the Design-First Approach
4. Chapter 4 — Stoplight Studio — Visual API Design
5. Chapter 5 — Spectral — API Linting and Governance
6. Chapter 6 — Prism — Mock Servers and Contract Testing
7. Chapter 7 — Elements — API Documentation
8. Chapter 8 — API Governance and Style Guides at Scale
9. Chapter 9 — Operations and Workflow
10. Chapter 10 — Stoplight in Practice