January 2024 Summaries

Merge is a company that provides Unified APIs for B2B organizations. They offer categories of integrations such as CRM, file storage, HRIS, and ATS. By leveraging Merge's maintenance support and management tooling, organizations can offer more reliable and high-performing integrations. However, building an in-house SDK is time-consuming, error-prone, and ultimately distracting for Merge. They initially used OpenAPI’s SDK Generator but switched to a Fern-based SDK workflow due to its advanced code automation capabilities. This allowed them to create a robust, well-documented SDK that appeals to modern developers. The adoption of Fern has brought numerous benefits such as better and more consistent SDK code generation, cleaner SDK experience, improved documentation, support for unions, and minimized backward compatibility issues.

Merge offers Unified APIs that simplify integration development for B2B organizations, providing a single endpoint for semantically similar integrations like CRM and HRIS. Initially relying on OpenAPI's SDK Generator, Merge faced challenges with fragmented and error-prone SDKs. Switching to a Fern-based SDK workflow allowed Merge to efficiently automate code generation, creating robust and well-documented SDKs while maintaining human oversight for final code deployment. This transition led to cleaner, more readable SDKs, improved documentation, and support for both synchronous and asynchronous requests across multiple programming languages. Fern's approach also enhanced Merge's backward compatibility and support for polymorphic code, allowing the company to focus on its core API product. The adoption of Fern resulted in a more consistent and high-quality experience for developers using Merge's SDKs, as reflected in positive customer feedback.