Blackbird The Future of API Development – Fast, Reliable, & Simplified

I'm pretty sure we all witnessed–if not lived through the disruption of–one very expensive bad code release and IT outage this summer. As someone who spent decades in software development, I can tell you with confidence that although the actual costs of that mistake were upwards of one billion dollars, the emotional toll on the developers involved was probably more. It was a lose-lose situation for all involved. I know developers are pushed harder than ever to code faster, release more often, and–" oh, by the way"–test their code. Meanwhile, infrastructures get more complex by the minute as regions, offices, networks, apps, services, machines, and containers multiply.

As a former developer, I understand the pain of building, testing, and deploying your own code (which, by the way, is even more complicated than ever in today's cloud-native, microservices-driven world). Now, as a CEO, I also understand the pain (or at least the very real fear of the pain) of a potential billion-dollar mistake. Regardless of whether you relate to either of those positions, on a less sensational note, I think we can all appreciate the role of healthy growth in a business's success today and the critical part that software plays.

Let’s take APIs, for example. A subset of all of the things that developers might be building, but - importantly - an increasingly vital necessity and one of the biggest drivers of volume, urgency, and security. Application Programming Interfaces; it’s an awful acronym, I’m sorry. Despite that, it's a heck of a powerful thing. These little pieces of code are the language that enables all of our devices and various applications to connect and share information. I'm certainly not the first to say it, but APIs are the essential building blocks of the modern world.

Can we align the stars to help developers with the heavy responsibility of delivering more, better, and faster while alleviating business leaders' similarly hefty tasks of avoiding risk and returning double-digit growth? In my most enthusiastic voice (you can't hear it, but I swear it is), I say, "Hell, yes!"

TL/DR: The short and sweet is that there is a way to make it easy and, dare I say, enjoyable to build, test, and release at the pace of today's business without the annoying dependencies that bog down developers—on both the application and infrastructure side—along the way. Don't believe me? Check out this short video to see how a typical API coding process compares with a new way powered by Blackbird.

What is this Panacea of Painless, High-velocity, High-quality Releases?

"AI anyone? While “artificial intelligence” is cool, for sure. And we've seen some amazing applications of it in the past couple of years since ChatGPT hit the world by storm. I am not going to tell you that it is some magic fix, but it sure is part of the answer. More important than the mechanisms of computing, though, is that the solution is holistic. The key, in my mind, is that we make it easy to catch (and fix) errors before they replicate. In order to do that, developers have to be engaged early and enabled to stay focused seamlessly throughout their work. (Anyone else have trouble with distractions setting you off course? Yep. That.) We need to make it possible for developers to stay in the zone (the inner dev loop) longer, and when collaboration is necessary, it's instant and easy. We need to build standards and processes to protect against human error and clear a path to success.

Introducing Blackbird

That's why I'm excited to introduce Blackbird, our cutting-edge api development platform, which is now available for early access.

Blackbird changes the game by prioritizing these crucial phases, enabling engineering teams to more efficiently output high-quality APIs. Blackbird provides a dedicated hosted environment for testing code. This means no more wrangling with local setups or worrying about inconsistencies between different development stages. Your team can now collaborate seamlessly, focusing on what they do best: building exceptional APIs.

Before you think I'm just tooting my own metaphorical horn (instruments were never my thing anyway), let me walk you through some of the features that get even me excited.

• Friction-Free End-to-End API Development: "From mocking to testing, Blackbird offers a streamlined, integrated environment. This end-to-end approach ("full stack" api development, perhaps?) ensures that every step of the api development process is covered and builds bridges right over those pesky typical trouble spots. The current state of designing APIs is long, annoying, and way more complicated than it needs to be. Developers often have to write code to get an idea of what they need in their specs, which is manual and easy to miss something. Server-side APIs require an incredible amount of boilerplate code, making the creation process arduous. Blackbird changes the game by prioritizing these crucial phases, enabling engineering teams to reliably output high-quality APIs more efficiently.
• AI-Assisted API Spec Generation: The manual and traditional route of the API design process can be overly complex and lengthy. Blackbird simplifies this by providing AI-assisted spec generation that streamlines the creation of your APIs, reducing the risk of missed details and errors.
• Dedicated Testing Environment & Ephemeral Testing Infrastructure: Setting up the infrastructure for ephemeral testing usually requires a call to the cloud team, which we all know can be time-consuming and expensive. Blackbird provides a 'DevOps in a box', if you will, that allows developers to test against live traffic locally and in production-like environments without breaking the bank. Developers can focus on building, while infrastructure managers can concentrate on maintaining the backbone that supports them. This clear division of responsibilities enhances productivity and reduces friction within teams.
• Independent & Integrated Debug: Once code has been mocked, run locally, run remotely, and deployed in a remote test environment - all with the ease of a single command for each, Blackbird hooks right up to your IDE to allow for swift and thorough debugging. By the time developers pass an API to staging, it's practically begging for a starring role in production (see what I did there?).

More, Better APIs Can Be Yours too!

Obviously, I’m biased, there’s no denying that, but I speak for the engineering team here (that is using Blackbird now to build our own APIs) when I say that we are genuinely excited to see more developers join us. That’s why we've decided to offer free early access to Blackbird for a limited time. This is your chance to experience firsthand a new development workflow - and one, we think you'll agree is easier and faster than ever before.

By signing up now, you'll not only gain access to exclusive features but also have the opportunity to shape the future roadmap. And look, even if you join and tell me all the things you hate–lay it on me. We want your feedback. Let's go!

And one parting note that I'd like to leave you with–the thing that makes Blackbird truly special is its respect for developers. We designed this tool to be powerful yet intuitive, ensuring it supports developers without getting in their way or oversimplifying complex tasks. Blackbird doesn't insult your intelligence; it complements it. It helps you focus on where it counts so that your api development can take flight with ease.

May your code releases be clean, your development frictionless, and your time spent on the parts of the SDLC that actually matter.

–Steve Rodda, CEO