Why integrations fail
Third-party APIs fail, rate-limit, return unexpected data and change without notice. Integrations that do not account for these realities break in production and stay broken until someone notices.
The fix is building defensively: assume everything will fail and plan for it.
Authentication and security
Store API keys in environment variables, not code. Use OAuth 2.0 where available. Rotate credentials regularly. Never log API keys or secrets.
For webhooks, validate signatures to ensure messages are authentic. Use HTTPS everywhere.
Error handling and retries
Idempotent handlers: processing the same message twice should not create duplicates. Exponential backoff: wait longer between each retry attempt. Dead-letter queues: messages that consistently fail are stored for investigation.
Classify errors: 4xx errors are permanent (do not retry), 5xx errors are transient (retry with backoff), timeouts are uncertain (retry with caution).
Rate limiting and throttling
Respect the API rate limits. Implement client-side throttling to stay under the limit. Use token bucket or sliding window algorithms for smooth rate limiting.
Monitor rate limit headers and back off proactively when approaching limits.
Monitoring and documentation
Log every API call with request, response and latency. Monitor error rates, latency percentiles and throughput. Alert on error rate spikes or latency degradation.
Document the integration: what it does, how it handles failures, what the data flow looks like and how to debug issues.
Frequently asked questions
How do I handle API version changes?
Pin to a specific API version when available. Monitor changelogs. Test against new versions in staging before updating production.
What if an API does not have documentation?
Inspect live traffic with a proxy or network inspector. Build a tested client against observed behaviour. Document what you discover.
How do I test integrations?
Unit tests with mocked responses. Integration tests against sandbox environments. End-to-end tests with real APIs in staging.
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