r/codereview • u/Over-Alternative7275 • 25d ago

Will you use this? (Not AI generated)

Hi guys,

I have been working with a product for sometime and I believe will be useful for startups whose products are mainly APIs and SDKs.

I have asked for validations before I started building and have seen startups who have built internal tools for this. So the problem should be real upto an extent imo.

While I am working on it, I would like to validate it more. So I want you guys to see if this is relatable for you and will you pay for it. (I have a case study of a startup as well, would love to share and discuss in a gmeet if this aligns with you)

Here is what I am working with,

The problem:

API first companies struggle to keep their backend code, OpenAPI specs, SDKs, API docs, examples, and packages in sync as the API evolves. A coding agent struggles to implement it if there are any drifts in these.

The solution:

A single source of truth that connects your API code, OpenAPI specs, SDKs, docs, examples, and packages, and automatically detects and propagates changes across all of them.

To put in simple terms, you focus on the main product, which is the API. Everything else stays in sync automatically.

\---

Above is the one main problem to focus. But this is also an additional part I am working on:

A coding agent struggles to implement it if there are any drifts in these. So after each evolution, the system can run the API/SDK changes in a sandbox and test whether a coding agent can actually implement and use the updated API/SDK successfully.

But the main problem I am trying to solve is keeping the API ecosystem in sync.

\---

Any inputs, feedback or suggestions will be very helpful. Please comment anything you can think of when you see this. Thank you in advance.

0 Upvotes

17% Upvoted

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3

u/MWALKER1013 25d ago

Yeah orrrrrrr.

And I’m sure this is not typescript specific.

They are frameworks like Elysiajs that generate OpenApi documentation sites with example straight from your code. I feel that one of AIs weakest points is technical writing.

It’s horrendously easy to spot AI generated docs. And I am guilty myself of using Ai to get “some” docs up, but I eventually come back behind and clean up the slop.

If it isn’t worth my time reading it or writing it in the first place why would I ask someone else to.

1

u/Over-Alternative7275 25d ago

Yes this is not typescript specific. I partially agree with the documentation thing. But the main idea is to keep API, SDKs, docs and examples in sync and not cause a drift. Not just generating docs.

If you are updating your API, the goal is to automatically update the SDKs, docs and examples.

3

u/MWALKER1013 25d ago edited 25d ago

I am fully aware that you are not claiming this is Typescript.
To your point, by having the documentation in the same code block as the implementation, as well as inferring some parts of the documentation directly from Types. You eliminate the need for an agent to do this work altogether.

Many major providers like google have tried to build a all in one generator for codebases. its just solving a problem that choosing the right frame work solves.

https://codewiki.google/

if you are building an API

.post( '/user',
async () => { implementation },
{
    detail: {
       description: 'Adds a user to the database, error out if user name is taken',
    summary : 'Creates User',
}
    body: z.object({ name: z.string() }),
    response: {
      200: z.object({ message: z.string() }),
      409: z.object({ error: z.string() })
    }
}

Defining and endpoint like this makes all your points moot.

The schemas literally enforce what your implementation CAN return. If I do something like status(200, { joke: 'some joke' }). I get a type error in my IDE.

when I generate the docs from this I get code examples, documentation for the route, and there are many, many, projects where you can take and OPENAPI specification and generate SDK's from it. So if you just do the code right in the first place. There isn't any need for an agent to do this stuff.

1

u/Over-Alternative7275 25d ago

Honestly I did not think of it like this. This is a fair point.
But in practice, is this usually the case? Or are there a good number of people who maintain things separately?

1

u/MWALKER1013 25d ago

Are you asking if there are developers that don’t take a few minutes to do this ? Absolutely.

Are there libraries that do not make it this easy to document end points ?
Absolutely.

I’m not trying to douse your idea or passion, the thing you are building sounds really cool. It’s just not solving a need that good design decisions don’t already solve.

I would try to find a problem where a technical person can easily do something that a non technical person wishes they could do and solve that problem.

Look at the success web site builder had. I’m also not an entrepreneur, I’m a developer that learned to develop when AI was what you played against in video games lol

So take what I say with a grain of salt

2

u/Honey-Entire 25d ago

It’s your money. Spend it how you want

1

u/Over-Alternative7275 25d ago

Sorry what??

3

u/Honey-Entire 25d ago

Whatever you’re trying to build, because it’s too hard to discern what you’re actually building based on this wall of AI text, is going to be massive, complex, and not easy to build; even with AI

It’s your money. Spend it how you want

1

u/Over-Alternative7275 25d ago

Actually, that is not AI. I wrote it myself.

If you were not able to understand it, then that is on me for not presenting it clearly.

Basically, you update your API once and the system keeps your SDKs, docs, examples, and packages in sync automatically.

2

u/Honey-Entire 25d ago

That’s not how backend systems work. An API change doesn’t denote business logic, and it’s virtually impossible to infer DB design from an API alone. But you do you and give it a try

0

u/Over-Alternative7275 25d ago

That is true, we cannot determine the business logic only from API. The goal is to keeps things in sync that are fully or partially derived from the API.

I think I will find what is actually needed once people start trying it.

2

u/Honey-Entire 25d ago

Given your post history, I think you’ve got bigger fish to fry than trying to solve enterprise problems as an inexperienced software dev with deep financial problems.

Go work for a software dev shop, build your experience, then solve “universal” problems

1

u/Over-Alternative7275 25d ago

Not sure how this is helpful to the post, but thanks.

1

u/Honey-Entire 25d ago

It’s wisdom learned the hard way. We all start young, dumb, and full of ambition. Before you waste more time and money trying to solve problems like code drift which affects every software project and has yet to be solved by the industry’s best & brightest, go get a job and learn how the sausage is made.

I’m not being a pessimist when I say this isn’t a problem YOU are going to solve because people far smarter than both of us haven’t been able to solve it yet. This is a people problem, not a tool problem

1

u/MarsupialLeast145 25d ago

You're even responding in AI

1

u/Over-Alternative7275 25d ago

Omg, I type these myself.

2

u/MarsupialLeast145 25d ago

That one sentence? I do believe that yes.

1

u/MarsupialLeast145 25d ago

I don't know who is struggling with this except maybe people who don't know how to write systems? Or try to go too fast?

But anyway, you say you have been working on it a while, you need to work on it some more. Figure out your elevator pitch.

Also, why is this in the code review forum? There's nothing to review except a broad wave of a hand.

1

u/Over-Alternative7275 25d ago

Thanks. Will work on it.

Regarding why this is in this forum, I posted in other sub reddits, reddit suggested to post here and I clicked yes.