Need to Quantify and Incentivize API Reuse
Riley was asked by leadership to answer how well they are reusing APIs and how they are incentivizing improvement.
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Persona Story:
Riley, the head of APIs, was asked by leadership to answer how well they are reusing APIs and how they are incentivizing improvement.
Problem Context
- A known catalog of APIs defined as OpenAPI for a specific domain is available
- Can’t agree on how to answer what API reusability actually means for domain
- Need to report API reuse to management via an existing observability dashboard
Problem Impact
- There are redundant APIs and properties that are redundant or variations of what is needed
- Developers do not have access to discovery of internal or 3rd-party APIs in IDE and copilot
- Increased cost in development and sustainment of redundant API infrastructure
Naftiko Today
- Agent Skills exposure provides a discoverable, business-level interface to existing APIs, making reuse easier by surfacing capabilities where developers work (AI agents, IDEs)
- Backstage Integration (Fleet) puts capability specs into a searchable catalog with one-click creation, reducing the friction that discourages reuse
- VS Code Extension with live YAML validation brings API capability discovery directly into the IDE and copilot workflow where developers already work
- Executable YAML specs create a shared, declarative format for capabilities that teams can fork and adapt rather than rebuilding from scratch
Naftiko Tomorrow
- Naftiko Shipyard MVP (Fleet Second Alpha) would serve as a reuse-oriented marketplace where teams browse, rate, and adopt shared capabilities
- VS Code Agent Plugin with Naftiko Skills preset (Fleet Second Alpha) would surface reusable capabilities directly inside developer AI agent workflows
- OpenAPI-to-Naftiko import (Second Alpha) would allow existing OpenAPI-defined APIs to be quickly converted into reusable capability specs
- Backstage Tech Radar plugin (Fleet GA) would help visualize which capabilities are widely adopted versus duplicated, providing the quantitative reuse metrics leadership needs