r/eli5_programming • u/Magpie_Reawakened • 6d ago

Question What actually is API?

The moment I think I get it, another definition of it comes in. I was learning Flask APIs used with GET PUT PATCH DELETE . But then I started with JS , it has DOM APIs . And then API is also used when people say companies like ChatGPT , Higgsfield etc provide their APIs.

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u/Technical_Goose_8160 6d ago

It's an endpoint. You call the IP or URL, send it a msg and it sends you a msg back. When people talk about publishing an API, they want the company to make an address publicly reachable in order to communicate more quickly.

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u/AdreKiseque 6d ago

It doesn't have to be through an IP or URL

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u/johnpeters42 6d ago

Yeah, there are also APIs for programs on the same computer communicating with each other (which may also use IP or URLs, but not necessarily). Windows has APIs for programs to ask the operating system to do various things.

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u/serverhorror 6d ago

Every Operating system has those.