Technical Specifications

aid: technical-specifications
name: Technical Specifications
description: >-
  Technical specifications are detailed technical requirements, standards, and parameters
  that define the characteristics and performance criteria of a product, system, or service.
  In the API and software domain, technical specifications include formal API description
  formats (OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, JSON Schema), data exchange formats (JSON, XML, CSV, Protobuf),
  communication protocols (HTTP, gRPC, WebSocket, GraphQL), and encoding standards. Organizations
  adopt technical specifications to address interoperability, consistency, and governance challenges
  in their technology environments. Key specifications in the API economy include the OpenAPI
  Specification, AsyncAPI Specification, JSON Schema, RAML, API Blueprint, and GraphQL SDL.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/technical-specifications/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2025-01-01'
modified: '2026-05-03'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
tags:
- Documentation
- Engineering
- Requirements
- Specifications
- Standards
apis:
- aid: technical-specifications:openapi-specification
  name: OpenAPI Specification
  description: >-
    The OpenAPI Specification (OAS) is a vendor-neutral, language-agnostic interface
    to HTTP APIs that allows both humans and computers to discover and understand the
    capabilities of a service. An OpenAPI document describes or is used to generate
    clients, servers, documentation, test cases, and tooling. Maintained by the
    OpenAPI Initiative under the Linux Foundation.
  humanURL: https://www.openapis.org/
  baseURL: https://spec.openapis.org/oas/v3.1.0
  tags:
  - API Description
  - Documentation
  - HTTP
  - OpenAPI
  - REST
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://spec.openapis.org/oas/latest.html
  - type: Website
    url: https://www.openapis.org/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification
- aid: technical-specifications:asyncapi-specification
  name: AsyncAPI Specification
  description: >-
    AsyncAPI is an open source initiative that seeks to improve the current state of
    event-driven architectures (EDA). The AsyncAPI Specification is used to describe
    and document message-driven APIs in a machine-readable format. It supports protocols
    such as AMQP, MQTT, Kafka, WebSocket, and HTTP.
  humanURL: https://www.asyncapi.com/
  baseURL: https://spec.asyncapi.com/versions/3.0.0
  tags:
  - AsyncAPI
  - Event-Driven
  - Messaging
  - Streaming
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.asyncapi.com/docs
  - type: Website
    url: https://www.asyncapi.com/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/asyncapi/spec
- aid: technical-specifications:json-schema
  name: JSON Schema
  description: >-
    JSON Schema is a vocabulary that allows you to annotate and validate JSON documents.
    It is used to define the structure, constraints, and semantics of JSON data, and
    underpins both OpenAPI and AsyncAPI for data model definitions. The current stable
    version is Draft 2020-12.
  humanURL: https://json-schema.org/
  baseURL: https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12
  tags:
  - Data Validation
  - JSON
  - Schema
  - Validation
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://json-schema.org/learn/getting-started-step-by-step
  - type: Website
    url: https://json-schema.org/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/json-schema-org/json-schema-spec
- aid: technical-specifications:graphql
  name: GraphQL Specification
  description: >-
    GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a runtime for fulfilling those queries
    with your existing data. GraphQL provides a complete and understandable description
    of the data in your API, gives clients the power to ask for exactly what they need,
    and makes it easier to evolve APIs over time. Maintained by the GraphQL Foundation
    under the Linux Foundation.
  humanURL: https://graphql.org/
  baseURL: https://spec.graphql.org/October2021
  tags:
  - GraphQL
  - Query Language
  - Schema
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://graphql.org/learn/
  - type: Website
    url: https://graphql.org/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/graphql/graphql-spec
  - url: graphql/technical-specifications-graphql.md
    type: GraphQL
- aid: technical-specifications:grpc
  name: gRPC
  description: >-
    gRPC is a modern open source high performance Remote Procedure Call (RPC) framework
    that can run in any environment. It uses Protocol Buffers as the interface description
    language and supports bidirectional streaming and flow control. Originally developed
    by Google, now a CNCF project.
  humanURL: https://grpc.io/
  baseURL: https://grpc.io/docs/
  tags:
  - gRPC
  - Protocol Buffers
  - RPC
  - Streaming
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://grpc.io/docs/
  - type: Website
    url: https://grpc.io/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/grpc/grpc
- aid: technical-specifications:raml
  name: RAML Specification
  description: >-
    RAML (RESTful API Modeling Language) is a YAML-based language for describing
    RESTful APIs. RAML enables you to manage the whole API lifecycle from design to
    sharing. It provides a human-readable format that describes RESTful API models
    and supports reuse via includes and libraries.
  humanURL: https://raml.org/
  baseURL: https://raml.org/spec
  tags:
  - API Description
  - Modeling
  - RAML
  - REST
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/raml-org/raml-spec/blob/master/versions/raml-10/raml-10.md
  - type: Website
    url: https://raml.org/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/raml-org/raml-spec
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specification_(technical_standard)
- type: About
  url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_standard
- type: Vocabulary
  url: >-
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/technical-specifications/refs/heads/main/vocabulary/technical-specifications-vocabulary.yml
- type: JSONLDContext
  url: >-
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/technical-specifications/refs/heads/main/json-ld/technical-specifications-context.jsonld
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com