---
title: "Microsoft REST API Guidelines"
source: Microsoft REST API Guidelines
source_url: https://github.com/microsoft/api-guidelines
licence: CC-BY-4.0
domain: engineering
subdomain: microsoft-api-guidelines
date_added: 2026-04-25
---

# Microsoft REST API Guidelines
Thank you for your interest in the Microsoft REST API Guidelines. If you have landed here, you're probably interested in learning about APIs. If so, you are in the right place!
We publish these guidelines here with the aim of fostering dialogue and learning in the API community at large. We further hope that these guidelines might encourage other organizations to create guidelines that are appropriate for them and in turn, if they're able, to publish theirs.

### Guidance for Azure service teams
Azure service teams should reference the companion documents, [Azure REST API Guidelines](./azure/Guidelines.md) and [Considerations for Service Design](./azure/ConsiderationsForServiceDesign.md), when building or modifying their services. These documents provide a refined set of guidance targeted specifically for Azure services. For more information, please refer to the [README](./azure/README.md) in the Azure folder.

### Guidance for Microsoft Graph service teams
Graph service teams should reference the companion document, [Microsoft Graph REST API Guidelines](./graph/GuidelinesGraph.md) when building or modifying their services. This document and the associated pattern catalog provide a refined set of guidance targeted specifically for Microsoft Graph services.


## Code of Conduct
This project adopts the [Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/). For more information, see the [Code of Conduct FAQ](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/faq/) or contact [opencode@microsoft.com](mailto:opencode@microsoft.com) with any additional questions or comments.

## This repository
This repository contains a collection of documents and related materials supporting the overall Microsoft REST API Guidelines initiative. To contribute to this repository, see the [contribution guidelines][contribution-guidance].

[contribution-guidance]: CONTRIBUTING.md
