title: REST API Media Types abbrev: docname: draft-ietf-httpapi-rest-api-mediatypes-latest category: info
ipr: trust200902 area: Applications and Real-Time workgroup: HTTPAPI keyword: Internet-Draft
stand_alone: yes pi: [toc, tocindent, sortrefs, symrefs, strict, compact, comments, inline, docmapping]
venue: group: HTTPAPI type: Working Group home: https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/httpapi/about/ mail: httpapi@ietf.org arch: https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/httpapi/ repo: rest-api github-issue-label: rest-api
ins: R. Polli
name: Roberto Polli
org: Digital Transformation Department, Italian Government
email: robipolli@gmail.com
country: Italy
normative: YAML: title: YAML Ain't Markup Language Version 1.2 date: 2021-10-01 author: - ins: Oren Ben-Kiki - ins: Clark Evans - ins: Ingy dot Net target: https://yaml.org/spec/1.2/spec.html OAS: title: OpenAPI Specification 3.1.0 date: 2021-02-15 target: https://spec.openapis.org/oas/latest author: - ins: Darrel Miller - ins: Jeremy Whitlock - ins: Marsh Gardiner - ins: Mike Ralphson - ins: Ron Ratovsky - ins: Uri Sarid jsonschema: title: JSON Schema date: 2020-01-28 target: "https://json-schema.org/specification.html" author: - ins: A. Wright - ins: H. Andrews - ins: B. Hutton - ins: G. Dennis
informative:
--- abstract
This document registers the following media types used in APIs on the IANA Media Types registry: application/openapi+json, and application/openapi+yaml.
--- middle
OpenAPI Specification [OAS] version 3 and above is a consolidated standard for describing HTTP APIs using the JSON {{!JSON=RFC8259}} and YAML [YAML] data format.
To increase interoperability when processing API descriptions
and leverage content negotiation mechanisms when exchanging
OpenAPI description representations
this specification registers the following media types:
application/openapi+json
and application/openapi+yaml
.
{::boilerplate bcp14+}
This document uses the Augmented BNF defined in {{!RFC5234}} and updated by {{!RFC7405}}.
The terms "content", "content negotiation", "resource", and "user agent" in this document are to be interpreted as in {{!HTTP=RFC9110}}.
This section describes the information required to register the above media types according to {{!MEDIATYPE=RFC6838}}.
The OpenAPI Specification Media Types convey semantics for OpenAPI Document (OAD) resources as defined in [OAS] for version 3.0 and above.
Those resources can be represented in {{JSON}} or [YAML].
Since there are multiple OpenAPI Specification versions,
those media types support the version
parameter.
The following example conveys the desire of a client to receive an OpenAPI Document resource based on the stated preferences:
- openapi 3.1 in YAML
- openapi 3.0 in YAML
- any openapi version in JSON
Accept: application/openapi+yaml;version=3.1,
application/openapi+yaml;version=3.0;q=0.5,
application/openapi+json;q=0.3
The following information serves as the registration form for the application/openapi+json
media type.
Type name: : application
Subtype name: : openapi+json
Required parameters: : None
Optional parameters: : version; unrecognized parameters should be ignored
Encoding considerations: : Same as "application/json"
Security considerations: : See {{security-considerations}} of this document, "application/json" and [OAS]
Interoperability considerations: : See "application/json" and [OAS]
Published specification: : this document, [OAS]
Applications that use this media type: : HTTP
Fragment identifier considerations: : [OAS] or the specific version of the OpenAPI document.
Additional information:
-
Deprecated alias names for this type: N/A
-
Magic number(s): N/A
-
File extension(s): json
-
Macintosh file type code(s): N/A
Person and email address to contact for further information: : See Authors' Addresses section.
Intended usage: : COMMON
Restrictions on usage: : None.
Author: : See Authors' Addresses section.
Change controller: : IETF
The following information serves as the registration form for the application/openapi+yaml
media type.
Type name: : application
Subtype name: : openapi+yaml
Required parameters: : N/A
Optional parameters: : version; unrecognized parameters should be ignored
Encoding considerations: : Same as "+yaml" Structured Syntax Suffix
Security considerations: : See {{security-considerations}} of this document, "+yaml" Structured Syntax Suffix and [OAS]
Interoperability considerations: : See "+yaml" Structured Syntax Suffix and [OAS]
Published specification: : [OAS]
Applications that use this media type: : HTTP
Fragment identifier considerations: : [OAS] or the specific version of the OpenAPI document.
Additional information:
-
Deprecated alias names for this type: N/A
-
Magic number(s): N/A
-
File extension(s): Same as "application/yaml"
-
Macintosh file type code(s): N/A
Person and email address to contact for further information: : See Authors' Addresses section
Intended usage: : COMMON
Restrictions on usage: : None.
Author: : See Authors' Addresses section
Change controller: : IETF
Interoperability requirements for media type registrations are discussed in Section 4.6 of {{!MEDIATYPE=RFC6838}}. and in the Interoperability Considerations of the "+yaml" Structured Syntax Suffix.
Security requirements for media type registrations are discussed in Section 4.6 of {{!MEDIATYPE=RFC6838}}. and in the Security Considerations of the "+yaml" Structured Syntax Suffix.
OpenAPI documents are processed by a wide variety of tooling for numerous different purposes, such as client code generation, documentation generation, server side routing, and API testing. OpenAPI document authors must consider the risks of the scenarios where the OpenAPI document may be used.
An OpenAPI document describes the security schemes used to protect the resources it defines. The security schemes available offer varying degrees of protection. Factors such as the sensitivity of the data and the potential impact of a security breach should guide the selection of security schemes for the API resources. Some security schemes, such as basic auth and OAuth Implicit flow, are supported for compatibility with existing APIs. However, their inclusion in OpenAPI does not constitute an endorsement of their use, particularly for highly sensitive data or operations.
OpenAPI documents may contain references to external resources that may be dereferenced automatically by consuming tools. External resources may be hosted on different domains that may be untrusted. References in an OpenAPI document, or across OpenAPI documents may cause a cycle. Tooling must detect and handle cycles to prevent resource exhaustion.
Certain properties allow the use of Markdown which can contain HTML including script. It is the responsibility of tooling to appropriately sanitize the Markdown.
OpenAPI documents use [jsonschema] therefore share the security consideration of JSON Schema.
This specification defines the following new Internet media types {{MEDIATYPE}}.
IANA is asked to update the "Media Types" registry at https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types with the registration information provided in the sections below.
|--------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
Media Type | Registration information section |
---|---|
application/openapi+yaml | {{openapi-yaml}} of this document |
application/openapi+json | {{openapi-json}} of this document |
-------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- |
--- back
{: numbered="false"}
Thanks to Erik Wilde and David Biesack for being the initial contributors of this specification, and to Darrel Miller and Rich Salz for their support during the adoption phase.
In addition to the people above, this document owes a lot to the extensive discussion inside and outside the HTTPAPI workgroup. The following contributors have helped improve this specification by opening pull requests, reporting bugs, asking smart questions, drafting or reviewing text, and evaluating open issues:
Austin Wright, Ben Hutton and Jason Desrosiers.
{: numbered="false" removeinrfc="true"}
Q: Why this document? : After all these years, we still lack a proper media type for REST related document types. This has some security implications too (eg. wrt on identifying parsers or treat downloads)
{: numbered="false" removeinrfc="true"}
RFC EDITOR PLEASE DELETE THIS SECTION.
{:numbered="false" removeinrfc="true"}
- Split YAML registrations in a separate I-D.
{:numbered="false" removeinrfc="true"}
- Split JSONSCHEMA registrations in a separate I-D.