--- title: Good APIs Age Slowly | daily.dev description: Good APIs are not defined by elegance at launch but by how well they hold up over time. The key insight is that most API problems stem from poor boundary... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/good-apis-age-slowly-qqvotmrmd twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Good APIs Age Slowly | daily.dev og:description: Good APIs are not defined by elegance at launch but by how well they hold up over time. The key insight is that most API problems stem from poor boundary... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/good-apis-age-slowly-qqvotmrmd og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/QqVOTmrmd.png og:image:alt: Good APIs Age Slowly og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Good APIs Age Slowly **[Programming Digest](https://daily.dev/sources/programmingdigest)** · 7 min read · 221 upvotes · 5 comments ## Summary Good APIs are not defined by elegance at launch but by how well they hold up over time. The key insight is that most API problems stem from poor boundary decisions: exposing too much, embedding hidden assumptions, or mirroring transient UI shapes. Once consumers see something, they rely on it regardless of intent. The advice is to expose as little as possible, prefer boring and explicit over clever and convenient, avoid coupling APIs to current frontend structures, and understand that versioning doesn't compensate for fundamentally unstable design. Stable APIs reduce coordination costs and become trusted infrastructure rather than a source of ongoing friction. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@hennv** · 11 upvotes > **Your API Is Not Your Frontend** - Yes, I remember seeing some endpoint called something like _"/landing-page-or-something"_. Fortunately, these kinds of pages do not change frequently. **@justinfrancis1** · 6 upvotes > Very true… also take the time up front in the design to ensure that the core framework, including security, is rock solid before extending the system. If the core is clunky everything added will be clunky and adding security after the fact seldom covers everything. **@a\_h\_abid** · 0 upvotes > Most Legacy Apps are full of these Weird APIs. --- Tags: [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/good-apis-age-slowly-qqvotmrmd) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Good APIs Age Slowly","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/good-apis-age-slowly-qqvotmrmd","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/good-apis-age-slowly-qqvotmrmd"},"datePublished":"2026-04-20T00:26:49.420Z","dateModified":"2026-07-02T02:15:22.179Z","description":"Good APIs are not defined by elegance at launch but by how well they hold up over time. 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Fortunately, these kinds of pages do not change frequently.","datePublished":"2026-04-21T03:25:48.258Z","dateModified":"2026-04-21T03:28:04.399Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/QqVOTmrmd#c-PAuB1UKhZ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Nguyễn Hên","url":"https://daily.dev/hennv","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJB8-bOZGVRYXKjSYWMCyYHUqg-KJ8B0wEHnbR1Uuc4-hDAgG3Y=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":11}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Very true… also take the time up front in the design to ensure that the core framework, including security, is rock solid before extending the system. If the core is clunky everything added will be clunky and adding security after the fact seldom covers everything.","datePublished":"2026-04-21T15:55:39.023Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/QqVOTmrmd#c-mLvtdtXOy","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Francis","url":"https://daily.dev/justinfrancis1","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocK3W7FZO_pv13ue_q20QSkUjZgwQvKepJBzIyaTt6QSWEfEkw=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Most Legacy Apps are full of these Weird APIs.","datePublished":"2026-04-26T08:05:36.151Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/QqVOTmrmd#c-iSHk2MT2f","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ahmedul Haque Abid","url":"https://daily.dev/a_h_abid","image":"https://avatars2.githubusercontent.com/u/2020773?v=4"}}]} ```