Designing APIs for agents

In early 2025, Webflow embarked on developing its MCP server to enhance agent interactions with APIs, learning that traditional developer APIs, which rely on human interpretation and manual handling, are not well-suited for autonomous agents. Initially, Webflow faced challenges with inefficiencies and failures due to the low-level nature of developer APIs, prompting a shift towards designing task-oriented, intent-driven tools that simplify agent workflows by reducing complexity and decision-making burden. This led to the creation of a layered tool architecture and filesystem abstractions that organize capabilities into domain-level tools and provide a more structured and navigable environment, allowing agents to operate more effectively. Additionally, Webflow's approach involved improving observability to better understand agent behavior and execution patterns, which revealed the need for a skills layer to enhance the agents' ability to perform complex tasks. The focus on making Webflow legible and operationally reliable for autonomous systems has driven the development of infrastructure, tool surface design, observability, and distribution patterns, ultimately aiming to create a comprehensive environment that supports both the flexibility needed by human users and the operational reliability required by agents.

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