API Versioning

To manage breaking API changes, you must implement an API versioning strategy that maintains backward compatibility. This involves creating new endpoint versions, like moving from `/api/v1/users` to `/api/v2/users`, allowing existing consumers to continue operating while providing a migration path to the updated response structure.

The best way to deprecate an old API version is to establish a planned sunset timeline and generate clear migration documentation. This approach assesses the impact on API consumers, provides them with deprecation schedules, and guides them step-by-step to adopt the new API version before the old one is retired.

Choosing between URL path and header-based API versioning requires analyzing your API specifications and consumer list. This analysis recommends the most appropriate versioning approach based on how breaking changes are introduced and how easily your consumers can adapt to new endpoint creations or modified request headers.

You need to create a new API version when a critical change alters the API response structure in a way that breaks backward compatibility, such as changing `{name: string}` to `{first_name: string, last_name: string}`. Introducing a new version ensures existing consumers remain unaffected while new consumers use the updated structure.

API versioning handles impact analysis by evaluating your API specifications and consumer lists against potential breaking changes. This process assesses how modifications to response structures or endpoint behaviors will affect consumers, enabling the creation of targeted migration guides and planned deprecation timelines to minimize disruption.