6 Tips for Documenting RESTful APIs

API documentation is likened to recipes, essential for making APIs understandable and usable, with Andy Wilkinson of Pivotal offering guidance on creating effective RESTful API documentation. Key tips include maintaining consistency in design decisions and naming conventions, documenting from the user's perspective by aligning with their mental models, and avoiding making URIs the focal point to prevent hard coding issues. Writing should be done using tools designed for documentation, such as ASCIIDoctor, and combining auto-generated examples with manual explanations can enhance usability, as demonstrated by the Spring REST docs project. Additionally, planning for future RESTful developments by considering the Richardson Maturity Model ensures that documentation tools do not limit RESTful API capabilities.