8 min · +100 XP
APIs Are Just Menus
How your tools can talk to other tools.
By the end of this lesson
You'll understand how to plug your projects into other services.
An API is a menu another program offers: here's what you can ask me for, and how to ask. You don't go into the kitchen. You order from the menu and get a result back — weather, payments, maps, messages, your calendar.
Here's the part nobody tells beginners: this isn't some exotic developer thing. The services you ALREADY use every day have these menus, right now, waiting. Concretely:
Services you already use that have an API
- 1Telegram — your tool can send YOU (or your clients) messages; takes two minutes to wire up. (WhatsApp has one too, but it's a business-verification slog — start with Telegram.)
- 2Google Sheets, Calendar and Gmail — read and write tables, create events, process mail. (Honesty: Google's key dance is the longest — a 'Cloud Console', consent screens; budget 30+ minutes with Claude guiding you, or start by exporting/importing CSV files instead.)
- 3YouTube — stats, video lists, comments (same long Google dance). Instagram's API is locked behind business accounts and app review — for personal tools, skip it.
- 4Weather services — today's forecast straight into your tool.
- 5Payments: Stripe, PayPal — your tool can accept real money. (A later, careful milestone: payment providers require a verified business account, aren't available in every country — and see the money rules in Module 11.)
- 6Notion, Trello, Todoist — your notes and tasks, readable and writable.
- 7Currency and stock rates, train and flight schedules, translation services — menus, all of them.
- 8Even Claude itself has an API — your tool can have a brain inside. (Heads-up: the API is a separate pay-as-you-go account — your Pro subscription doesn't cover it. Small money at hobby scale, but know it's a second bill.)
If a service is big enough that you've heard of it — it almost certainly has an API. And you never need to study any of them: just ask Claude, 'does X have an API, and can my tool do Y with it?' It knows the menus. Your job is only to want the connection.
What that unlocks (same recipes, now with names)
- 1Weather API → your morning 'what to wear' note on the fridge screen.
- 2Telegram API → your budget tool pings you: 'you crossed your food budget'.
- 3Google Sheets API → receipts flow into a spreadsheet your accountant already uses.
- 4Calendar API → your booking page creates real calendar events by itself.
What does it mean that 'almost every service has an API'?
Author
Evgeny Arsentyev
PhD · Chief Product Officer at a healthtech company