Every API here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.
openapi: 3.2.0
info:
title: Evangelist Network Timelines API
version: 1.2.0
summary: Sixteen years of API research as one API.
description: 'The API Evangelist network — 5,000+ stories, 77 topic areas, 2,400+ governance building
blocks (guidance, rules, policies, standards, strategies, schema, properties, experiences,
lifecycle), conversations, videos, white papers, tools, timelines, services, and the API
vocabulary — served as a single, searchable REST API.
**Tiers.** The API works without a key on the free tier (5 req/s, 1,000 req/day). Requests
from apievangelist.com network sites get the internal tier automatically. Higher-limit keys
are available by request — email info@apievangelist.com.
**Providers.** The API provider catalog (4,500+ companies) intentionally lives on
[APIs.io](https://apis.io/developer/) — this API covers API Evangelist''s own research
network and does not duplicate it.
**MCP.** Every resource here is also available as MCP tools at
`https://mcp.apievangelist.com/mcp` (Streamable HTTP), including concierge tools
(`get_overview`, `guide_topic`) that bundle curated guidance for a topic.
'
contact:
name: API Evangelist
email: info@apievangelist.com
url: https://apievangelist.com
license:
name: CC BY-SA 4.0
url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
servers:
- url: https://api.apievangelist.com/v1
security:
- {}
- ApiKeyAuth: []
tags:
- name: Timelines
description: The API, resource, industry, and people timelines behind sixteen years of research.
paths:
/timelines/api:
get:
operationId: getTimelineApi
tags:
- Timelines
summary: API
description: 'The API timeline — the moments that led to and shaped web APIs, from early communication technology through the modern API economy, in chronological order.
'
parameters:
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Page'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Limit'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Fields'
responses:
'200':
description: Timeline events in chronological order.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/PagedEnvelope'
example:
meta:
total: 320
page: 1
limit: 2
pages: 160
query:
timeline: api
data:
- slug: api-drums-are-used-to-communicate
title: Drums Are Used to Communicate
summary: Long before written language, human communities used drums to send messages across distances too great for the voice to carry, encoding meaning in rhythmic patterns. Talking drums represent one of the earliest examples of transmitting structured information over a shared medium, a precursor to every signaling network that followed.
url: https://apievangelist.com/timeline/api/
tags: []
timeline: api
when: Pre-Historic
position: 0
type: timelines
- slug: api-pigeons-are-used-to-send-messages
title: Pigeons Are Used to Send Messages
summary: Ancient civilizations including the Persians, Greeks, and Romans used homing pigeons to carry written messages between distant points, establishing some of the first organized long-distance messaging systems. Pigeon post demonstrated the value of reliable message delivery networks centuries before wires and radio made electronic communication possible.
url: https://apievangelist.com/timeline/api/
tags: []
timeline: api
when: Historic
position: 1
type: timelines
headers:
RateLimit-Policy:
$ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitPolicy'
X-RateLimit-Limit:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitLimit'
X-RateLimit-Window:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitWindow'
X-RateLimit-Tier:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitTier'
/timelines/resources:
get:
operationId: getTimelineResources
tags:
- Timelines
summary: Resources
description: The resources timeline — which digital resources became APIs, and when, in chronological order.
parameters:
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Page'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Limit'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Fields'
responses:
'200':
description: Timeline events in chronological order.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/PagedEnvelope'
example:
meta:
total: 59
page: 1
limit: 2
pages: 30
query:
timeline: resources
data:
- slug: resources-contacts-relationships-salesforce
title: Contacts, Relationships (Salesforce)
summary: Salesforce launched as one of the first API-first software companies, exposing customer contacts, accounts, and relationship data over the web. By making CRM records programmable, it established that business data could live in the cloud and be integrated into any other system rather than locked inside desktop software.
url: https://apievangelist.com/timeline/resources/
tags: []
timeline: resources
when: '2000'
position: 0
type: timelines
- slug: resources-auctions-products-ebay
title: Auctions, Products (eBay)
summary: eBay released its API in November 2000, giving developers programmatic access to auction listings, products, and bidding. The move let third-party sellers and tool makers build applications on top of the marketplace, demonstrating early on that opening commerce data via API could grow an ecosystem rather than threaten it.
url: https://apievangelist.com/timeline/resources/
tags: []
timeline: resources
when: '2000'
position: 1
type: timelines
headers:
RateLimit-Policy:
$ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitPolicy'
X-RateLimit-Limit:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitLimit'
X-RateLimit-Window:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitWindow'
X-RateLimit-Tier:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitTier'
/timelines/industries:
get:
operationId: getTimelineIndustries
tags:
- Timelines
summary: Industries
description: The industries timeline — the industrial history that frames how API infrastructure evolves, in chronological order.
parameters:
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Page'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Limit'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Fields'
responses:
'200':
description: Timeline events in chronological order.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/PagedEnvelope'
example:
meta:
total: 40
page: 1
limit: 2
pages: 20
query:
timeline: industries
data:
- slug: industries-the-pacific-railroad-acts
title: The Pacific Railroad Acts
summary: The Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 drove the construction of a transcontinental railroad in the United States through authorizing the issuance of government bonds and the grants of land to railroad companies. Most of the transcontinentals were heavily subsidized by all levels of government via sub-market-rate loans, land grants, and special local privileges on the frontier.
url: https://apievangelist.com/timeline/industry/
tags:
- Railroad
timeline: industries
when: '1862'
position: 0
link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railroad_Acts
type: timelines
- slug: industries-the-pacific-railroad-acts-amendments
title: The Pacific Railroad Acts (Amendments)
summary: AN ACT to establish the gauge of the Pacific railroad and its branches. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the gauge of the Pacific railroad and its branches throughout their whole extent, from the Pacific coast to the Missouri river, shall be, and hereby is, established at four feet eight and one-half inches.
url: https://apievangelist.com/timeline/industry/
tags:
- Railroad
timeline: industries
when: '1862'
position: 1
link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railroad_Acts
type: timelines
headers:
RateLimit-Policy:
$ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitPolicy'
X-RateLimit-Limit:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitLimit'
X-RateLimit-Window:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitWindow'
X-RateLimit-Tier:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitTier'
/timelines/people:
get:
operationId: getTimelinePeople
tags:
- Timelines
summary: People
description: The people timeline — the people whose work made compute, the internet, and APIs possible.
parameters:
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Page'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Limit'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/Fields'
responses:
'200':
description: Timeline entries.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/PagedEnvelope'
example:
meta:
total: 146
page: 1
limit: 2
pages: 73
query:
timeline: people
data:
- slug: people-ada-lovelace
title: Ada Lovelace
summary: Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, born Augusta Ada Byron and now commonly known as Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognized as the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. Because of this, she is often described as the world's first computer programmer.
url: https://apievangelist.com/timeline/people/
tags:
- Women in Tech
- Compute
- Mathematics
- Software
timeline: people
when: 1815–1852
position: 0
link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace
type: timelines
- slug: people-adele-goldberg
title: Adele Goldberg
summary: Adele Goldberg is a computer scientist who participated in the development of the programming language Smalltalk-80 and various concepts related to object-oriented programming while a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, PARC, in the 1970s. Goldberg began working at PARC in 1973 as a laboratory and research assistant, and eventually became manager of the System Concepts Laboratory where she, Alan Kay, and others developed Smalltalk-80, which both developed the object-oriented approach of Simula 67 and introduced a programming environment of overlapping windows on graphic display screens. Not only was Smalltalk's innovative format simpler to use, it was also customizable and objects could be transferred among applications with minimal effort. Goldberg and Kay also were involved in the development of design templates, forerunners of the design patterns commonly used in software design.
url: https://apievangelist.com/timeline/people/
tags:
- Women in Tech
- Compute
- Smalltalk
- PARC
timeline: people
when: '1945'
position: 1
link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adele_Goldberg_(computer_scientist)
type: timelines
headers:
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$ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitPolicy'
X-RateLimit-Limit:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitLimit'
X-RateLimit-Window:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitWindow'
X-RateLimit-Tier:
$ref: '#/components/headers/XRateLimitTier'
components:
headers:
XRateLimitTier:
description: The tier this request was served on — `free`, `pro`, `business`, `internal` or `owner`. Keyless requests are `free`; requests from an apievangelist.com origin are `internal`.
schema:
type: string
examples:
- free
XRateLimitLimit:
description: The daily request quota for the tier that served this response.
schema:
type: integer
examples:
- 1000
XRateLimitWindow:
description: The quota window in seconds. Always 86400 (one day).
schema:
type: integer
examples:
- 86400
RateLimitPolicy:
description: 'The rate-limit policy in force for the tier that served this response, in RFC 9331 quota-policy syntax: `"quota";q=1000;w=86400, "burst";q=5;w=1` — a daily quota and a per-second burst. This is the POLICY, not a live counter: `RateLimit-Remaining` and `RateLimit-Reset` are deliberately not sent, because the quota is enforced by the gateway and there is no per-key usage accounting to read. Pace against the policy, and treat a 429 as authoritative.'
schema:
type: string
examples:
- '"quota";q=1000;w=86400, "burst";q=5;w=1'
schemas:
PagedEnvelope:
type: object
properties:
meta:
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properties:
total:
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page:
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limit:
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pages:
type: integer
query:
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additionalProperties: true
data:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/Doc'
Doc:
type: object
description: One network resource. Extra type-specific fields (guest, outline, party, …) appear per type.
properties:
type:
type: string
slug:
type: string
title:
type: string
summary:
type: string
url:
type: string
format: uri
tags:
type: array
items:
type: string
date:
type: string
content:
type: string
description: Full markdown body when include=content.
additionalProperties: true
parameters:
Fields:
name: fields
in: query
description: Comma-separated sparse field projection.
schema:
type: string
example: slug,title,url
Page:
name: page
in: query
schema:
type: integer
minimum: 1
default: 1
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name: limit
in: query
schema:
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minimum: 1
maximum: 100
default: 25
securitySchemes:
ApiKeyAuth:
type: apiKey
in: header
name: x-api-key
description: Optional — raises rate limits above the keyless free tier.
x-apis-io:
tiers:
free:
label: Free
description: Browse, search, and read summaries across the whole network — stories, areas, guidance, building blocks, papers, tags, related. Keyless.
pro:
label: Pro
description: The research depth — full content (include=content), curated topic guides (/guide), and catalog intelligence (/stats). Requires X-API-Key.
plans: https://developer.apievangelist.com/plans/
mcp:
endpoint: https://mcp.apievangelist.com/mcp
agentSkills:
index: https://apievangelist.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json
prompts:
- name: where_can_ae_help
tier: free
description: Map a team's API need to the relevant research areas + the services Kin Lane offers.
uses:
- search_api_evangelist
- find_services
- name: catch_up
tier: free
description: Catch up on a topic — the most recent stories, newest first.
uses:
- find_posts
- name: research_topic
tier: pro
description: 'PRO — Deep-research a topic: the curated guide bundle plus the full research bodies.'
uses:
- guide_topic
- get_post
- find_related
- name: governance_starter_kit
tier: pro
description: 'PRO — Assemble an API governance starter kit: guidance, rules, policies, standards + services.'
uses:
- guide_topic
- find_building_blocks
- name: vendor_landscape
tier: pro
description: PRO — Map the vendor + tooling landscape for a capability, with research context.
uses:
- find_solutions
- find_tools
- guide_topic
resources:
- uri: ae://overview
tier: free
description: Service root — what the network offers, counts, entry points, how to engage.
operation: getServiceInfo
- uri: ae://services
tier: free
description: The services Kin Lane offers teams.
operation: listServices
- uri: ae://contact
tier: free
description: Every way to reach API Evangelist.
operation: getContact
- uri: ae://stats
tier: pro
description: PRO — per-type counts, stories-per-year, top tags by reach.
operation: getStats
- uri: ae://area/{slug}
tier: free
description: One topic area with its related-area graph.
operation: getArea
- uri: ae://tag/{slug}
tier: free
description: One tag with per-type counts and everything it labels.
operation: getTag
- uri: ae://post/{slug}
tier: free
description: One story by slug.
operation: getPost
- uri: ae://guide/{topic}
tier: pro
description: PRO — a curated cross-network guide bundle for a topic.
operation: getGuide
operations:
getServiceInfo:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_overview
searchNetwork:
tier: free
mcpTool: search_api_evangelist
agentSkill: brief-on-topic
listPosts:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_posts
agentSkill: brief-on-topic
getPost:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_post
listAreas:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_areas
agentSkill: brief-on-topic
getArea:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_area
listGuidanceHistory:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_guidance_section
listGuidanceTechnology:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_guidance_section
listGuidanceBusiness:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_guidance_section
listGuidancePolitics:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_guidance_section
listGuidanceGovernance:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_guidance_section
listGuidanceEvangelism:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_guidance_section
listGuidance:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_building_blocks
agentSkill: governance-starter-kit
getGuidanceItem:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_building_block
listPolicies:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_building_blocks
agentSkill: governance-starter-kit
getPoliciesItem:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_building_block
listRules:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_building_blocks
agentSkill: governance-starter-kit
getRulesItem:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_building_block
listStandards:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_building_blocks
agentSkill: governance-starter-kit
getStandardsItem:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_building_block
listSolutions:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_solutions
agentSkill: map-vendor-landscape
getSolution:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_solution
listTools:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_tools
agentSkill: map-vendor-landscape
getTool:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_tool
listSchema:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_building_blocks
getSchemaItem:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_building_block
listProperties:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_building_blocks
getPropertiesItem:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_building_block
listStrategies:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_building_blocks
getStrategiesItem:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_building_block
listExperiences:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_building_blocks
getExperiencesItem:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_building_block
listLifecycle:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_building_blocks
getLifecycleItem:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_building_block
listConversations:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_conversations
getConversation:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_conversation
listVideos:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_videos
getVideo:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_video
listPapers:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_papers
agentSkill: research-with-api-evangelist
getPaper:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_paper
listNewsletters:
tier: free
mcpTool: search_api_evangelist
listVocabulary:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_vocabulary
listVocabularyCategory:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_vocabulary
listFeeds:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_feeds
getTimelineApi:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_timeline
getTimelineResources:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_timeline
getTimelineIndustries:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_timeline
getTimelinePeople:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_timeline
listServices:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_services
agentSkill: find-where-ae-helps
getService:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_service
agentSkill: find-where-ae-helps
getContact:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_contact
agentSkill: find-where-ae-helps
listTags:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_tags
agentSkill: brief-on-topic
getTag:
tier: free
mcpTool: get_tag
agentSkill: brief-on-topic
getGuide:
tier: pro
mcpTool: guide_topic
agentSkill: research-with-api-evangelist
getStats:
tier: pro
mcpTool: get_stats
getPostRelated:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_related
agentSkill: brief-on-topic
getAreaRelated:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_related
agentSkill: brief-on-topic
getPaperRelated:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_related
agentSkill: research-with-api-evangelist
getGuidanceRelated:
tier: free
mcpTool: find_related
agentSkill: brief-on-topic