The Problem: API Versioning is a Special Kind of Hell

Let's talk about the beautiful, standardized world of API versioning. Just kidding—it's an absolute dumpster fire. Every service has its own "creative" approach: some use /api/v1, others prefer /v1/api, and then there are those special snowflakes who go with /api/version/1.0.0-alpha-preview-rc2 because apparently, clarity is for cowards.

You know the drill. You read the documentation (which was last updated in 2017, back when people still thought blockchain would solve world hunger). You carefully craft your request to /api/v2/users. You get a 404. You try /api/v2.1/users. Another 404. You try /api/v2/users but with a different authentication header because maybe that's the issue? Nope. You start questioning reality. Is the API down? Is your internet working? Did you accidentally anger the API gods by not sacrificing enough coffee to the server room?

The real kicker? The working endpoint was actually /api/v2.0.1/users, but only on Tuesdays during a full moon. The documentation mentioned this in a footnote on page 47, right after the section about "legacy support" (which is corporate speak for "we broke it but don't want to admit it").

The Solution: Stop Guessing, Start Detecting

I built API Version Detective because I got tired of playing "guess the endpoint" every time I integrated with a new API. This tool does the dirty work for you—it automatically discovers all versioned endpoints for a base API URL and tests which ones actually respond to requests.

Here's how it works: you give it a base URL (like https://api.example.com), and it systematically tries common versioning patterns. It checks for everything from simple /v1 to the more exotic /version/2023-12-01-preview patterns. Then it sends sample requests to each discovered endpoint and reports back which ones actually work.

The best part? It generates a compatibility matrix showing which versions respond to which HTTP methods. No more wondering if PUT works on v3 but not v3.1-beta. The tool tells you exactly what's what, saving you from the special kind of madness that comes from reading contradictory Stack Overflow answers from 2015.

How to Use It (Without Losing Your Mind)

Installation is straightforward because complicated installation processes are what we're trying to escape from:

npm install -g api-version-detective
# or
pip install api-version-detective

Basic usage is even simpler. Here's the main magic from the tool:

from api_version_detective import discover_versions

# The moment of truth
discover_versions(
    base_url="https://api.example.com",
    endpoints_to_test=["/users", "/posts"],
    http_methods=["GET", "POST", "PUT"]
)

Check out the full source code on GitHub for all the glorious details. The tool handles authentication headers, rate limiting, and even those pesky APIs that return 200 OK but with an error message in the body (looking at you, GraphQL).

Key Features That Actually Help

• Auto-discovers all versioned endpoints: It tries everything from /v1 to /api/v2023/12/01 and all the nonsense in between
• Tests each endpoint with sample requests: Because an endpoint that exists but returns "deprecated" isn't actually helpful
• Generates a compatibility matrix: See exactly which HTTP methods work on which versions at a glance
• Handles authentication: Because some APIs require you to jump through hoops before they'll even talk to you
• Export results: Get JSON, CSV, or markdown reports to share with your team (or use as evidence when arguing with the API team)

Conclusion: Stop Wasting Your Life

API Version Detective won't fix the fundamental brokenness of API versioning practices across the industry. It won't make documentation writers actually update their docs. It won't stop product managers from adding "vNext" endpoints without telling anyone. But what it will do is save you hours of frustration every time you need to integrate with a new API or figure out why your existing integration suddenly broke.

Try it out: https://github.com/BoopyCode/api-version-detectivet

Because life is too short to manually test 47 different version endpoints, especially when 46 of them are lying to you. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go debug why v3.1.7-alpha-preview-rc4-nightly-build-2023-12-01 isn't responding to my DELETE requests. Or maybe I'll just run the detective first.