The story behind real-time collaborative API design
It's Monday morning. Your backend team just pushed a new API endpoint. Your frontend team is coding against the old spec from last week's Google Doc. Three hours later, the integration fails in production.
Sound familiar?
API misalignment wastes days of development time, causes merge conflicts, and leads to endless Slack messages trying to figure out who changed what. Traditional API design tools force teams to work in silos, with specs becoming outdated the moment they're written.
We knew there had to be a better way.
Design teams solved this problem years ago. Before Figma, designers emailed PSDs back and forth, argued over versions, and wasted hours on handoffs. Figma changed everything with real-time collaboration.
We asked ourselves: Why doesn't API design have this?
Developers use amazing tools for everything else:
But API design? Still stuck with static documents, separate testing tools, and zero visibility into what teammates are changing.
The disconnect between backend and frontend teams isn't a people problem. It's a tools problem.
LiveSpecs started in early 2024 as a weekend project. The idea was simple: What if API design had real-time collaboration like Figma?
We built the first prototype in a month. It had:
We showed it to a few developer friends. Their response: "This should have existed years ago. When can we use it?"
Six months and hundreds of iterations later, LiveSpecs launched in public beta. Today, over 500 teams use it to design APIs faster, eliminate misalignment, and ship with confidence.
LiveSpecs isn't just another API documentation tool. It's a collaborative workspace where your entire team designs, tests, and evolves APIs together.
Here's what makes it different:
See exactly what your teammates are changing, as they type. No more "refresh to see latest version" or merge conflicts. Everyone works on the same spec, simultaneously.
The moment you define an endpoint, LiveSpecs generates a working mock server. Frontend teams can start building immediately, even before the backend exists. No manual setup, no configuration files.
Every change is tracked and saved. Roll back to any previous version, see who changed what, and understand the evolution of your API. Syncs automatically with your GitHub repository.
We're developers building for developers. That means keyboard shortcuts, dark mode by default, Monaco editor integration, and zero unnecessary clicks. The tool gets out of your way and lets you design.
LiveSpecs is built by a team that's lived the API misalignment problem firsthand. We've worked at startups and enterprises, built microservices and monoliths, and wasted countless hours aligning specs across teams.
We're not trying to be the everything-tool. We're laser-focused on one problem: making API design collaborative, real-time, and painless.
We ship fast, listen to feedback, and build in public. Our roadmap is driven by actual developers solving real problems, not corporate feature checklists.
Every feature is built by developers, for developers. No bloat, no unnecessary complexity, no corporate BS. Just tools that make your work faster and better.
We build in public and deploy continuously. New features weekly, bugs fixed within hours, feedback implemented immediately. Speed is a feature.
Open roadmap. Clear pricing. No hidden fees. No dark patterns. No vendor lock-in. You own your data, we build tools to help you use it better.
Eliminate the days wasted on API misalignment.
Every engineering team should be able to design, test, and deploy APIs together—in real-time, without friction, without context switching.
We're building the collaborative API design platform that should have existed a decade ago.
LiveSpecs is in public beta and growing fast. We're looking for:
Join 500+ teams using LiveSpecs. Free for individuals, affordable for teams. Start designing better APIs today.
Help shape the product. Get early access to new features, direct line to the team, and influence on the roadmap.
We're building in public. Found a bug? Have a feature request? Want to contribute code? We're listening.
Interested in the future of developer tools? We're building something big and growing fast. Let's talk.
Email: hello@livespecs.io
Twitter: @livespecs
GitHub: github.com/livespecs
Discord: Join our community
We read and respond to every message.
Join hundreds of teams designing better APIs together.