u/ELMG006

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a project that requires integrating multiple third-party APIs, each using a different authentication method (OAuth2, API Keys, Basic Auth, custom tokens, you name it).

To keep the codebase clean and avoid auth logic bleeding into my business logic, I built a custom API abstraction layer.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how it works:

• Registration: I register each API and its required auth method in a central config/registry.
• The Wrapper: A unified layer handles the token refreshing, header injections, and signature generation behind the scenes.
• The Call: In my actual application code, I just call the abstraction layer (e.g., apiClient.fetch('serviceName', endpoint)), and it automatically handles the specific auth handshake.

It’s working great so far and keeps everything decoupled, but I’m curious about how others tackle this as the project scales.

What’s your go-to approach? > * Do you build custom wrappers like me?

• Do you rely on specific design patterns (like Gateway or Factory)?
• Or do you use a third-party library/tool to manage this overhead?

Let’s discuss!

I use an API Abstraction Layer specialized in machine-to-machine API calls through which all my APIs pass, and this tool allows me to monitor and log all the activity of my APIs via the dashboard. The logs also allow me to see in real time which API the method is using and the response format sent (200, 404, 500, etc.). I use a self-hosted version of this tool, a bit like a support tool for projects, a bit like an adapter. What's more, the strength of this tool is that it handles several types of API authentication, notably API Keys, and almost all Auth 2.0 flows. So when one of the APIs I use switches from API Keys to Auth 2.0, I just have to change the authentication method in this tool, run tests to see if it responds correctly, and validate the changes. That's it. As for cleaning the JSON data, formatting, etc., and the business logic of my application, the tool doesn't take that into account; I manage that myself. If you have any suggestions, I'm open to discussion.

Yes, I do, and to do that I use software where I simply record the characteristics of the APIs I want to use via a dashboard. Then, through a dynamic interface, I can use them simply by dynamically filling in the parameter fields I've defined. For your information, I created this software myself and I've made available its SaaS, open-source version (which is really focused on the API itself, the software acting as a single API to call all the other APIs in your project), and also a dedicated subreddit for those who have questions.

I have a backend filled with generic functions to call and execute various types of APIs. So, when I want to integrate APIs into my different projects, I register them in my backend and then call them via the backend's API. I coded my backend with Django, PostSQL, and Djange DRF. I'd like to know what you use.

In my case, to avoid having to modify my workflows, I save all my APIs in a single API and use it to call them all. That way, when I want to change or modify an API, I just go to my API dashboard and make the changes there without ever having to touch my automations. This API can execute all types of REST APIs, as well as those that work with API keys and Auth 2.0 authentication, and it also monitors errors and logs in real time so I always know where and why things are failing, allowing me to quickly make changes in my dashboard. I'm eager to know how you handle these kinds of situations.

Yes, me too. So, all alone in my corner with Django, PostSQL, and Django DRF, I created a mini Gateway API specialized in calling external APIs. So I have all the advantages of Gateway APIs: monitoring, error handling, limit management, dashboards, etc., but specifically for managing external APIs. Therefore, in my apps, I only use my gateway, and when I want to change or modify my APIs, I only go to the dashboard of my Gateway API and I only touch my code to change my business logic. Of course, going through an intermediary to make my calls adds a slight latency, but honestly, for small projects, the latency isn't even noticeable for me or my end users. I'm eager to see how you handle this if you've ever experienced this frustration.

I use a Slack workspace built with Django and DRF where I put all my functions and classes to call and manage different types of APIs, and then I just have to go through this Slack workspace to call my different APIs. What about you?

I use a proxy that I developed myself, and it's this proxy that handles executing the APIs on other servers. All I have to do is register the different APIs and their characteristics in my proxy (URLs, endpoint, method, parameter type, etc.). Then, all I have to do is integrate my proxy's API into my code, specify which API, how, and which part of the API I want to call to my proxy, and choose the same response format for all my APIs. Then, my proxy handles reconstructing and executing the requests on its servers using the API data I've registered, retrieving the responses, cleaning them, and formatting them before sending them back to my project. I'm curious to see what you use or have developed for this type of problem in particular.

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Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a project called Asstgr: a self-hosted outbound API gateway built with Django REST Framework.

The idea is simple:

instead of integrating third-party APIs directly into every app, you register them once in Asstgr and access them through a unified REST interface.

Think of it like a private/self-hosted RapidAPI layer.

Main features:

* API registry for any external API

* Endpoint + parameter modeling

* OAuth2 support (client_credentials, authorization_code, password)

* Automatic token refresh

* API key authentication

* Per-user quota system

* DRF throttling / rate limiting

* Unified execute endpoint

* Request logging + audit trail

* Multiple response formatting modes

* Django admin back-office

Stack:

* Django 5

* Django REST Framework

* PostgreSQL

* Daphne / ASGI

* SimpleJWT

Example flow:

Your app → Asstgr → Stripe / GitHub / OpenWeather / etc.

One thing I wanted to solve:

when you manage lots of third-party integrations, auth handling, quotas, retries, logging, and normalization become repetitive very quickly.

So I tried turning that into a reusable platform.

GitHub:

https://github.com/botyut/asstgr

SaaS demo:

https://www.asstgr.com/home/

I’d love feedback from backend engineers:

* architecture

* API design

* quota/throttling strategy

* OAuth implementation

* ideas for improvement

Especially interested in opinions about whether Django is a good fit for this kind of gateway architecture long term.

In my executor, you can record the characteristics of your APIs (URLs, endpoints, methods, parameters, authentication, etc.) via the executor's API or its web interface, and then call them all using the single URL of my software's API. You can also monitor the logs of your calls and even test your APIs. For those who are curious, all the links are in my bio. Thank you for reading.