API Orchestration
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
API orchestration is a central conductor that coordinates multiple API calls in a specific sequence to complete a business process. 'First create the user, then provision their account, then send the welcome email.' It's the recipe that knows the order of operations.
Real Talk
A pattern where a central orchestrator coordinates multiple service calls in a defined sequence to implement a business process. The orchestrator manages the flow, handles failures, and maintains process state. Unlike choreography, orchestration has a single point of control that explicitly defines the workflow.
When You'll Hear This
"The onboarding orchestrator coordinates 5 API calls in sequence to set up a new customer." / "Orchestration gives you visibility into the process flow — you can see exactly where it failed."
Related Terms
API Composition
API composition is when one service calls several other services and smooshes the results together into one response.
Choreography
Choreography is when services coordinate by reacting to each other's events without a central boss.
Process Manager
A process manager is the project coordinator for long-running workflows.
Saga
A saga is a series of steps where each step has an undo action. If step 3 fails, you run the undo for steps 2 and 1.