Request // Response Episode 3: Anthropic MCP, GraphQL vs REST, and LLM API strategies

In this episode of the "Request & Response" podcast, Ken Rose, CTO and co-founder of OpsLevel, discusses his career journey from PagerDuty to Shopify and eventually founding OpsLevel, an internal developer portal designed to simplify the complexity of managing large software environments. The conversation explores the company's API-first approach, emphasizing the importance of extensibility and automation in their platform strategy. Ken shares insights from his experience with GraphQL at Shopify, highlighting its benefits and challenges compared to REST, particularly in terms of performance management and versioning. The discussion also touches on key metrics for API platforms, the importance of API consistency to avoid the pitfalls of Conway's Law, and how large language models (LLMs) and agentic workflows could potentially revolutionize developer productivity. Overall, the episode delves into the nuanced considerations of API design and management, offering valuable advice for API teams and highlighting the evolving landscape of developer tools and experiences.