Your API is a product for integrators. Even if v1 has no public API docs, webhooks and future partners will need stable shapes.
REST conventions that age well
- Plural nouns, stable IDs (UUIDs).
- Consistent error JSON: code, message, field errors.
- Pagination: cursor or offset, always documented.
- Version prefix (/v1/) before external consumers depend on you.
Webhooks out
Sign payloads, retry with backoff, let receivers verify with a shared secret. Log delivery status in admin.
Webhooks in
Stripe, HubSpot, Slack, one handler module per provider, idempotent processing, dead-letter queue for failures.
Use this as a working checklist inside your team first. When the same steps repeat every week and spreadsheets start breaking, that is usually the moment to scope the smallest reliable integration that removes repeated copy-paste from a core workflow as an owned system. See the relevant Standen service · More guides · SaaS ops audit.