RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML) is a simple and succinct way of describing practically-RESTful APIs. It encourages reuse, enables discovery and pattern-sharing, and aims for merit-based emergence of best practices. The goal is to help our current API ecosystem by solving immediate problems and then encourage ever-better API patterns. RAML is built on broadly-used standards such as YAML and JSON and is a non-proprietary, vendor-neutral open spec.

HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State) is a constraint of the REST application achitecture. A hypermedia-driven site provides information to navigate the site's REST interfaces dynamically by including hypermedia links with the responses. This capability differs from that of SOA-based systems and WSDL-driven interfaces. With SOA, servers and clients usually must access a fixed specification that might be staged somewhere else on the website, on another website, or perhaps distributed by email.