Assess operations, not just connectivity
An API connection can be reachable while still being unsuitable for a reliable business outcome. The evaluation starts with the exact reads and writes required by the contract: which records establish identity, which action creates the result, and which query can confirm it.
For a draft invoice workflow, supplier lookup, purchase-order lookup, receipt lookup, draft creation, and draft read-back are separate capabilities. Document permissions and failure behavior for each rather than describing the entire ERP as “integrated.”
| Capability | Question to settle |
|---|---|
| Identity | Which tenant, company, supplier, and record identifiers are authoritative? |
| Authorization | Can credentials be limited to the contract’s required operations? |
| Mutation | Does the write create a draft, post a transaction, or trigger downstream work? |
| Deduplication | Can the destination enforce or retrieve a stable operation reference? |
| Confirmation | Which read establishes the saved state, and when is it authoritative? |
Keep permission outside the document
The connection configuration and task contract should determine what the runtime may do. Text in a PDF, catalog description, or model response must not expand those permissions, change the destination company, or provide a replacement credential.
For a draft-only contract, evaluate a service identity that cannot post or pay. If the destination cannot express that restriction, identify the compensating application checks and residual risk. Document which controls the destination enforces and which depend on the integration layer.
Study the destination’s failure behavior
A timeout can occur before or after a destination commits. Reliable recovery requires a way to find the original operation without replaying it blindly. Eventual visibility, rate limits, asynchronous jobs, and batch partial failures all affect that recovery path.
For batch work, define whether the contract promises all records, a bounded partial result, or individually tracked outcomes. A batch identifier alone cannot establish which records changed. The receipt should retain per-record evidence when completion is evaluated at that level.
Prepare an integration brief
Use synthetic records for an initial technical discussion. Confirm the destination APIs, permission boundaries, and recovery behavior before connecting a business workflow. Share credentials only through the agreed provisioning channel, not an inquiry form.
- System name, deployment model, API documentation, and a non-sensitive example workflow.
- Required operations, protected fields, company boundaries, and credential constraints.
- Native idempotency or uniqueness mechanisms, plus read-back behavior after writes.
- Data classifications, permitted processing regions, and applicable retention requirements.
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