Overview

The API reference tab appears in your top bar once you publish an API reference, as described in Publishing an API reference from an OpenAPI spec. Readers land on its start page, and its sidebar lists your guide sections first, then the endpoints grouped by tag. You manage the tab under Settings → Help Center → API reference, below the list of versions, or in the Help Center editor.

Each API in your Help Center has its own tab, with a name, start page, and guide sections that every version of that API shares.

Set up the tab

Name the tab

1. Go to Settings → Help Center → API reference

2. Under Tab name, type the name readers should see

3. Click 'Save'

Leave the field empty to show "API reference" in each reader's language.

To name the tab in other languages or give it an icon, open the Help Center editor, open the ••• menu on the API reference row in the Tabs section, and choose 'Edit tab'. Both places change the same name.

Choose the start page

The start page is Automatic by default. Featurebase builds it from the spec of the API's default version, with sections such as Base URL, Authentication, Versioning, Errors, and Webhooks when the spec has them, and rebuilds it on every upload.

To write your own start page:

1. Under Start page, click 'Edit'

2. Click 'Create article'

Featurebase copies the automatic page into a new draft article and opens it in the article editor. Readers keep seeing the automatic page until you publish the article, and uploads no longer change the start page.

The ••• menu on the start page offers the other options:

• 'Create new article': Start from an empty draft article

• 'Use another article…': Pick any article in the Help Center, then click 'Use as start page'

• 'Switch back to automatic': Return to the generated page. The article stays in your Help Center

Add guide sections

Guide sections are regular Help Center articles listed in the API reference sidebar, above the endpoint groups. Write them in the article editor, then add them here:

1. Under Pages, click 'Add section'

2. Choose 'Add a collection' or 'Pick articles'

3. Select the collection or articles. For picked articles, enter a Section title

4. Click 'Add collection' or 'Add section'

5. Click 'Save pages'

A collection section lists the collection's published articles in the collection's order. The collection moves out of the rest of your Help Center navigation, such as the sidebar and the home page, while its articles keep their URLs and stay in search. Picked articles also stay where they are in your Help Center.

Drag sections to reorder them. Use the ••• menu on a section to 'Change articles' or 'Remove section', then click 'Save pages'. Readers only see published articles they have access to.

In the Help Center editor, you can also drag a collection from the rail onto the API reference row in the Tabs section, or use 'Add collection' under Guide pages on the tab's page.

Place the tab in the top bar

The API reference tab sits after your other tabs by default. To move it, drag its row in the Tabs section of the Help Center editor, or use 'Move up' and 'Move down' in its ••• menu, as described in Organizing your Help Center with tabs.

Shape the endpoint groups

The endpoint groups in the sidebar come from the tags in your spec:

• Order: Groups follow the order of the tags list in the spec

• Group name: x-displayName on a tag shows a different name than the tag itself

• No tags: A spec whose endpoints have no tags is grouped by resource path, such as /users and /invoices

• Hidden endpoints: x-hidden keeps an endpoint out of the sidebar, but its page stays reachable by link

• Excluded endpoints: x-internal or x-excluded gives an endpoint no page

To leave out an endpoint without changing the spec, open the version's Endpoints tab, clear the endpoint's checkbox, and click the save button that shows the page count, such as 'Save 42 pages'. Turn on Hide new endpoints until I pick them to keep endpoints from future updates off until you select them.

Add an intro to an endpoint

The spec sets each endpoint's title, description, parameters, and responses. You can add your own intro above that generated content, for example a use case or a warning.

1. Open the API version and its Endpoints tab

2. Hover the endpoint and click the pencil icon (Edit intro)

3. Write the intro. Type / to add blocks

4. Click 'Save'

The intro appears on the published endpoint page once you save it, without a draft review. Updates to the spec never change it. If an endpoint's path changes but its operationId stays the same, the intro moves with it. If the endpoint disappears from the spec, its intro is hidden and comes back when the endpoint returns.

List the endpoints in llms.txt

List in llms.txt on the version's Settings tab adds the endpoint pages of the API's default version to your Help Center's llms.txt, the index that AI tools read. It is on by default. Making your Help Center readable for AI tools explains what the index contains.