JSON API is a set of industry standards for RESTful APIs that defines uniform protocols for resource serialization, error responses, and query parameters. It provides a specification for request and response payloads in JSON-based APIs to ensure consistency across endpoints.
The specification focuses on reducing network requests through a structured resource serialization format and a standardized mechanism for embedding related resources into a single response. It utilizes a custom JSON media type for content negotiation and supports the definition of custom profiles to provide specialized information beyond the base technical standard.
The standard covers resource management by mapping HTTP methods to lifecycle operations and employs a uniform error object structure for predictable failure handling. It also includes a standardized query protocol for filtering, sorting, and paginating resource collections.