About OpenAPI Viewer

Browse endpoints, schemas, and operations from an OpenAPI 3 spec. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the API / Config collection.

Use Cases

• Explore third-party API endpoints during integration work
• Review API schema changes in pull request reviews
• Generate quick API documentation for internal microservices
• Onboard new developers by visualizing the full API surface

Tips

• Paste an OpenAPI 3 spec to browse all endpoints visually
• Expand schemas to inspect request and response models
• Filter operations by HTTP method or tag for quick navigation

Fun Facts

• The OpenAPI Specification was originally called Swagger, created by Tony Tam in 2011; it was donated to the Linux Foundation's OpenAPI Initiative in 2015.
• OpenAPI 3.0, released in July 2017, introduced components/schemas to replace definitions, and added support for callbacks and links.
• Over 75% of REST APIs in enterprise use OpenAPI specs for documentation, according to SmartBear's 2023 State of APIs report.

FAQ

OpenAPI 2 (Swagger) or 3?

Both. The viewer auto-detects the version. OpenAPI 3.x is the current standard; Swagger 2 is still widely used in older systems.

Can I try requests?

Read-only viewer. For live requests use Swagger UI hosted alongside the spec, or Postman/Insomnia importing the spec.

What's shown per endpoint?

Path, method, parameters, request body schema, response schemas, examples, descriptions. Everything from the spec rendered for reading.

Does it validate the spec?

Syntax yes — malformed OpenAPI shows parse errors. For semantic validation (correct schema shapes, no circular refs) use a dedicated linter like Spectral.