What's up everyone! One of the most powerful things you can know about when building ai automations, agents and software is: APIs. I'd venture to say that 95% of people who are "building" ai don't know what APIs are, how they work, or what they do. They might argue that Claude will handle that for them, or that Cursor just knows what to do. News flash: They don't. and from personal experience, a lot of times, they lie when you ask if you can connect with a certain app in a certain way. This "certain way" is the protocol known as an API (Application Programmable Interface). This protocol runs the internet. when you visit a website, API. When you pay your bills online, API. When you open LinkedIn, APIs. this protocol is the backbone of majority of communication on the internet and no one even knows what it is or how it works.. its just magic!! "But tanner, like aren't they right? Do we really need to know about apis?" Yes. When you are working on a consulting project, the first question is going to be: "Can we connect with my system" Your first thing to look up is: "Does x system have an api". Then from here you are able to see if their platform even has an api, is it a paid one, and how complex or easy is it to work with. sure an ai can do this research for you, but word of caution: They want to tell you what you want to hear. I have been lied to soooo many times by ai saying that a particular endpoint exists that does "exactly what i want it to do" when a matter of fact, it doesn't. so when your building or consulting, apis are very relevant and powerful to understand. So for these reasons, I've done some videos on breaking down apis and using n8n as the medium. Any questions? (LMK if you like this kind of content and if it is helpful or not)