Improving developer experience with libraries
Client libraries serve as the bridge between developers and your API.
After their first “hello world”, developers need to build a proof of concept leveraging your service into their application. They’ll likely need an abstraction layer on top of your API anyway, so you might as well do it for them.
Meet developers where they are by providing them a library.
Libraries abstract away complexity and reduce the friction of integrating. They take your API one step further by creating easily accessible methods and classes into the programming language for developers. This does not only support their developer experience, but also will streamline their integration and time-to-market.
Prioritizing which library language to support
When it comes to deciding which programming languages to support, you have to understand your target developer segment.
Developers roles can range from iOS developers, data scientists, SRE/platform engineers, each ranging in different tools and ways of working. Given the problem space your product is solving for, have a clear idea of the specific type of persona you’re serving.
You’ll also want to consider both what these developers are proficient at, what’s programming language is used at their companies, and what they might have the desire to learn and write in.
If you’re still forming your developer persona, starting with the most popular programming languages is a good starting place.
You may find that some of your target customer base is still using a dated, legacy technology. While it might be easy to dismiss legacy technology, it’s important to weigh the opportunity for acquisition. One example is Resend who support SMTP. While SMTP is a 40 year old protocol, Resend found that many of their target customers were still using it.
There will always be an opportunity in the future to provide a migration path for those still using legacy technology to a more modern paradigm. The importance is focusing on meeting your users where they are.
Maintenance Tradeoffs
Creating and maintaining a set of client libraries does come at a cost.
Supporting multiple programming languages introduces complexity and overhead. Every time you need to make a change to your API, each library will likely require a change as well. Versioning must be managed across different libraries and will require coordination across your customer base. Each language is nuanced as well, making it not as trivial as updating your API specification.
This obviously increases the maintenance cost of the interface between you and the customers. If done poorly, you’re at risk of inconsistencies across libraries and actually worsening your developer experience.
Library Code Generation
Thankfully, the developer tools landscape is evolving to address these challenges.
Companies like APImatic, Liblab, Speakeasy and Stainless have created their own demand of client library generation, offering solutions that streamline the painful cost of library creation and maintenance. By providing your OpenAPI specification, you’ll be able to build and generate a set of libraries in the programming languages of your choice.
There is an obvious cost of paying for services like these. However, I’d argue there are likely more important and interesting problems your team is trying to solve. Creating and maintaining libraries is one less thing they’ll have to add to their plate.
Takeaways
Client Libraries Simplify Integration
Client libraries serve as a crucial bridge between developers and APIs by abstracting complexity and reducing friction during integration. They provide easily accessible methods and classes in various programming languages, making API integration smoother for developers.
Prioritize Library Language Support
Understand your target developer segment and how they are writing code. Consider factors like what languages they use at their companies and what they might be willing to learn. Prioritize languages based on the needs and preferences of your target personas.
Maintenance Tradeoffs
While client libraries enhance developer experience, maintaining them comes with costs. Supporting multiple languages adds complexity and overhead, making updates and version management challenging. Inconsistencies across libraries can worsen developer experience.
Delegate library maintenance to code generation solutions
Companies like APImatic, Liblab, Speakeasy, and Stainless offer solutions for automating the generation and maintenance of client libraries. By leveraging your OpenAPI specification as your source of truth, you can reduce the maintenance burden and delegate to library generation as a service.