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API Designer

API Designer is a Visual Studio Code extension for building and improving OpenAPI specifications. It helps you use AI to design APIs faster, assess AI readiness, and fix governance issues.

What you can do

  • Design APIs with Github Copilot using the built-in API Design Skill, with guided recommendations and faster fixes.
  • Design and edit OpenAPI specs visually inside VS Code with GitHub Copilot Assistance
  • Validate APIs against governance and best-practice rulesets
  • Analyze AI readiness and identify improvement areas

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio Code (compatible with extension engine requirement ^1.100.0).
  • GitHub Copilot (optional, recommended for AI-assisted workflows).

Quick start

  1. Install API Designer from the VS Code Marketplace.
  2. Open your OpenAPI file (.yaml or .json), or create one with GitHub Copilot using the bundled api-design skill.

  3. Open API Designer. You can open it in any of these ways:

    • CodeLens in the file: Open in API Designer
    • Editor title bar: Open in API Designer
    • Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P): API Designer: Open in API Designer
    • Open-file notification (when apiDesigner.notifyOnOpen is enabled)

    VS Code editor open on a YAML file with CodeLens link at top, a notification prompt at bottom-right, and callout arrows labeling CodeLens and Notification entry points

  4. Use AI-assisted editing to improve operations, descriptions, and examples in your spec. API Designer Design view for Order Management API showing AI Readiness, Security, and REST Compliance score cards, paths list, and Edit with AI button

  5. Open report cards and review AI readiness and governance findings. AI Readiness full report for Leave Management API showing 78% score, 33/64 passed checks, 19 affected endpoints, 20 errors, 293 warnings, and AI readiness breakdown by dimension

Next steps