API glossary

Short glossary of API terminology, used among other places in our technical documentation.

API	Wikipedia definition: An application programming interface (API) is a computing interface that defines interactions between multiple software intermediaries. It defines the kinds of calls or requests that can be made, how to make them, the data formats that should be used, the conventions to follow, etc.
API endpoint	An API endpoint receives a predefined input, performs a (single) operation and returns a predefined output.
API schema	An API schema is just like an instruction manual for the programming processes. Describing API operations and methods on how to interact with it. A well-defined API schema allows developers to create machine-generated API documentation. Readable for both humans and machines. Which means the API is both easier to discover and use.
API scoping	We use API scoping to manage customer access, enabling us to distribute a different sets of endpoints to different customers and customer groups.
API token	A short-lived secret, granting access to some API endpoints. The API token is obtained by exchanging an API CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET for a token.
API application	An application sending requests to the API. It is associated with a unique pair of CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET.
Client secret	It is similar to a password, in a username-password system. The CLIENT_SECRET is unique to an application and is used to obtain an API token, which then grants access to API endpoints.