Swagger
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Swagger is the old name for OpenAPI, plus the suite of tools around it. When someone says 'check the Swagger docs,' they mean the interactive API documentation where you can try out endpoints right in the browser. It's the UI that makes your API self-documenting.
Real Talk
Swagger refers to both the original API specification (now OpenAPI) and the tooling ecosystem by SmartBear. Swagger UI renders interactive documentation from OpenAPI specs, Swagger Editor provides a web-based spec editor, and Swagger Codegen generates client/server code. The specification was donated to the OpenAPI Initiative in 2015.
When You'll Hear This
"Open the Swagger UI at /docs to test the API endpoints." / "We share the Swagger link with frontend devs so they can see all available endpoints."
Related Terms
API Documentation
API documentation is the instruction manual for your API. It tells other developers what endpoints exist, what data to send, and what they'll get back.
FastAPI
FastAPI is a Python framework that's both blazing fast and auto-generates documentation for your API.
OpenAPI
OpenAPI is a standard way to describe your REST API in a YAML or JSON file.
REST (Representational State Transfer)
REST is a set of rules for how APIs should behave. Think of it as the etiquette guide for servers and clients talking to each other.