For API modernization
Before a framework migration, refactor, or service split, APIScout helps you establish a source-backed view of the API contract you need to preserve.
router.get("/accounts",
requireAuth, handler);
src/routes/accounts.ts:18
The problem
Migration work often begins with assumptions about which routes exist and who uses them. An incomplete inventory creates avoidable compatibility risk and leaves teams arguing over the current state of the service.
Built for Tech leads, backend developers, and modernization teams who need to understand the implementation before they trust the documentation.
Why this happens
The team needs a path-and-method baseline before moving handlers, so it can verify the new service preserves required endpoints. Migration plans organize around frameworks and service boundaries; the HTTP contract is treated as an implementation detail until a client breaks.
Before moving billing routes into a new service, engineers need to identify which paths belong to billing and which shared prefixes or middleware shape their behavior.
A long-lived service contains routes no team recalls but scheduled jobs or external clients still call. Renaming them without an inventory creates avoidable compatibility risk.
How APIScout solves it
APIScout runs inside VS Code and reads the backend source tree locally. It turns route discovery into an inspectable inventory, then exports OpenAPI when the API needs to move into documentation, testing, or security workflows.
Scan the existing backend before the migration starts.
Review discovered paths, methods, and source locations.
Export OpenAPI as a baseline for compatibility and documentation work.
Benefits by role
Establish the route contract before broad structural changes, so endpoint discovery does not become a late migration task.
Give application owners, client teams, and architects a common baseline for compatibility and deprecation discussions.
Migrated endpoints stay in security scope even when their implementation moves to a different service.
In practice
Capture and review the baseline before changing route registration.
Beginning a rewrite without recording the existing surface removes your reference.
Pair the inventory with contract and consumer tests for critical endpoints.
Unit tests alone do not assert route parity after a migration.
Track intentionally removed routes as explicit migration decisions.
Don't assume unreferenced-looking routes have no consumers.
FAQ
No. It provides a source-backed baseline. Compatibility also depends on payloads, response semantics, authentication, and client behavior.
Before the migration as the current contract, then again from the new implementation to support parity review.
Yes. An inventory shows which routes remain in the old service, which moved, and which contracts need coordinated deprecation.
When APIScout is not enough
APIScout cannot discover all external consumers or guarantee response-level equivalence. Use telemetry, contract tests, and staged rollout controls for migration safety.
How ApyGuard extends the workflow
A migration moves endpoints between services, and test scope rarely follows on its own. Import the post-migration OpenAPI into ApyGuard so routes are exercised where they now run, not where they used to live.
APIScout for VS Code
Install the free, local-first extension to discover backend endpoints, inspect their source context, and export an OpenAPI baseline when the workflow needs one.
Install APIScout — Free