Versioning a partner API without stranding integrators
Published November 2024 · James Okonkwo
Partners integrate once and forget. Breaking their client without warning floods your support queue.
Name a policy
Publish minimum notice for breaking changes—six months is a common starting point for B2B APIs with fewer than fifty active integrators.
Use headers, not URL chaos
Accept-Version or a dated media type keeps URLs stable and simplifies routing in API gateways.
Ship migration guides with diffs
Side-by-side request/response examples beat prose. Link from deprecation response bodies to the guide URL.
We facilitate alignment in partner API design workshops.