The API product playbook: Managing the full lifecycle for a world-class DevEx and Agent Experience

An API is a product. But are you designing it for all your consumers?

In 2026, your APIs are consumed by three types of clients:

  • Human developers who read docs,

  • CI/CD pipelines that expect contracts, and

  • AI agents that parse schemas literally and break silently on ambiguity.

But most API programs are only designed for one. This talk is a playbook for all three.

You'll get a redesigned API lifecycle  from intent-driven design and governance-as-code to MCP-based agent discoverability, consumer-segmented observability, and deprecation that works for humans and agents alike.

Every stage comes with architecture patterns, real signals from the field, and a GitHub repo that you can use.

Who is this talk for?

This is for architects, API engineers, full-stack engineers, product-minded engineers, and VPs.

What will attendees take away?

  • A lifecycle blueprint for humans, pipelines, and AI agents — with architecture diagrams you can take back to your team.

  • The DevEx and AX (Agent Experience) metrics that actually matter and how to measure them.

  • A production-ready open-source playbook to fork and adapt immediately.

Headshot of Darshit - a man with dark hair and beard, wearing glasses and a black shirt. Darshit is looking at the camera.

Darshit Pandya

He/him
Senior Principal Engineer - Platform @ Serko

Darshit Pandya, Senior Principal Engineer - Platform at Serko and AWS Community Builder, is a global voice in serverless and platform engineering. He transforms platforms into force multipliers, championing internal developer platforms that reduce friction and abstract complexity.

A speaker at global conferences such as AWS re:Invent, AWS Sydney Summit, and PlatformCon, he actively drives the New Zealand tech ecosystem forward as a conference organiser and panelist, with a deep focus on accelerating developer velocity and platform engineering excellence.

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