Most mainstream approaches to building hypermedia APIs are strongly, and understandably, rooted in the traditional mindset. The API description, be it Open API or any other form, is a deployment artifact, statically linked to the application as a whole.

I put forward a different approach where everything about an API becomes a resource in its own right. This way, the behavior and structure of resources can be changed any time, with little code, potentially without the need for rolling out a new software component and with some training, even without the assistance of the software vendor, thus cutting costs and time to market by a large margin.

My proposed solution puts a great emphasis on a unified data model, which equalizes the representation of data, metadata, and metadata about metadata, thus removing barriers to gaining greater insight and flexibility in managing APIs and businesses.