There are times when you can pause and think. Times when day-to-day work shows you the problems, but you usually tackle them one by one and synchronously. Leaving behind any possibility to make a step back and rethink the whole solution. A solution that becomes more and more obvious once the dots start connecting.
From those enlightenment moments, when your mind turns thoughts into words, Grapity hit me like a lightning bolt.
What is Grapity? Why am I building it?#
Grapity solves a common problem with a simple premise. API Governance from the ground up focused on developer experience and velocity. Yes, Grapity is an opinionated platform that focuses on simplifying developer velocity when producing and maintaining APIs while keeping high-quality standards in teams’ hands.
What’s the vision?#
To build an opinionated platform for API governance, enabling delivery, visibility, security and quality. Provider-free and open source.
Given the nature of this centralization and governance, the result provides a few advantages:
- Provision API gateways or Schema Registries
- Access control into the contracts management and visibility
- Guardrails and rule enforcement for contract evolution aligned with company standards
- Monitor API consumption to enable decision making and enhance alignment between consumers and producers
Doesn’t this exist already?#
The reality is that the API ecosystem is complex and diverse. There’s a full assortment of point tools, and a few big players with ecosystems built around just part of the niche. These same big players focus on one or a few of the following: API Gateways, Testing, Documentation, others only on sync APIs or async APIs, and so on.
As an open-source enthusiast, I couldn’t find a single product (paid or free) that delivered everything on that list. Gluing tools together always left me with less than I needed, plus constant limitations or quick trips into paid tiers.
So then I thought to myself, why not sit down and write exactly how I think it should be, build it, and give it to everyone to see if it brings value?
I’m building Grapity as a fully open-source project for anyone to use. Run it. Make it yours. Get started with the quickstart guide and find the source on GitHub. Let me know if, like me, you’ve found the solution you were looking for.