API Mocking, Reference Documentation, and Client Generation

Several teams may need to use an API description for different kinds of work. A bookstore's frontend team needs book data before the service is ready. A partner developer needs to understand the lookup operation. A mobile team wants to avoid writing another HTTP wrapper by hand. All three need the same interface information, but in different forms.

An OpenAPI description can feed a mock server, reference documentation, and generated client code.

This chapter explains what each output provides, how to make it useful, and how to verify it without mistaking generated consistency for a working integration.