# API Blueprint

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/api-blueprint/  
**Website:** https://apiblueprint.org  
**APIs profiled:** 1

API Blueprint is a high-level API description language using Markdown-based syntax for designing, documenting, and prototyping web APIs. Created by Apiary and released under the MIT License, API Blueprint uses .apib files with a concise Markdown format that makes APIs accessible to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. The project is no longer actively maintained (all apiaryio GitHub repos are archived as of 2024) but remains a notable specification in API design history, influencing later formats like OpenAPI.

## Kin Score — 15.6 / 100 (emerging)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 15.6).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 50.0 |
| Contract Quality | 0.0 |
| Governance | 0.0 |
| Contract Governance | 0.0 |
| Operational Transparency | 26.3 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 9.5 |
| Commercial Clarity | 26.3 |
| Access Clarity | 26.3 |

## Agent readiness — 3.0 (human-only)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | no |
| Agentic Access | no |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | no |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | documented |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Freemium — onboarding: unknown, pricing: freemium, trial: no (confidence: medium).

## APIs (1)

- **API Blueprint** — API Blueprint is a high-level API description language using Markdown-based syntax for designing, documenting, and prototyping APIs. Files use the .apib extension with media typ...

## Security (1)

- **Api Blueprint Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · DMARC

## Plans (1)

- **Api Blueprint Plans Pricing**

## Use cases (3)

- **API Documentation** — Write human-readable API documentation in Markdown that doubles as a machine-parseable specification for tooling.
- **Contract Testing** — Use API Blueprint specs with Dredd to verify that API implementations conform to their documented contracts in CI pipelines.
- **API Prototyping** — Rapidly prototype APIs by writing Blueprint specs first, then generating mock servers from the specification.

## Tags

API Design, Specification Language, Markdown, Documentation

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/api-blueprint/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.