Request // Response Episode 2: coding on airplanes, and the true signal of good DevEx

In the second episode of the podcast "Request // Response," host Sagar Batchu converses with Robert Ross, CEO of FireHydrant, exploring his experiences in building the company and the broader evolution of API design, including the roles of gRPC, REST, and LLMs in shaping developer experience. The discussion delves into FireHydrant's API-first architecture, its transition from Rails controllers to a JavaScript frontend with over 350 public API endpoints, and the shift towards API-first data pulls in enterprise API consumption. Ross also reflects on the pros and cons of gRPC versus REST, the benefits of Protocol Buffers over OpenAPI, and the importance of API usability for long-term adoption. Additionally, the episode addresses the future of API ergonomics in accommodating both human and AI agents, with a focus on context-rich naming conventions and the measurement of API success through metrics like time to first byte and API reliability. The conversation highlights the significance of intuitive API design and the "airplane test" as a measure of great developer experience, emphasizing the importance of zero-documentation, self-explanatory APIs.