I'm building public API docs with authentication and examples, recommend a stack

A solid, practical stack for public API docs with auth, examples, and good developer experience is:

Recommended stack

1) OpenAPI as the source of truth

• Write your API spec in OpenAPI 3.1
• Keep auth, request/response schemas, and examples in the spec
• Use it for both docs generation and validation

Why: it’s the most portable standard, and most doc tools integrate with it cleanly.

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2) Docs site: Redocly or Stoplight

Option A: Redocly

Best if you want:

• polished public docs
• strong OpenAPI rendering
• good customization
• easy hosting

Good for:

• reference docs
• auth docs
• examples
• changelogs

Option B: Stoplight

Best if you want:

• design-first API workflow
• built-in mocking
• collaborative API design
• easier non-dev editing

Good for:

• teams that maintain API docs and spec together
• interactive docs with examples and mock servers

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3) Interactive API testing

Use one of:

• Swagger UI if you want simple and familiar
• Redoc + “Try it” tooling if using Redocly ecosystem
• Postman collections embedded or linked for users who want to test quickly

If your API uses OAuth2 / API keys / Bearer tokens, make sure the docs support:

• auth scheme definitions in OpenAPI
• copyable example tokens placeholders
• clear “how to authenticate” section
• scoped examples for each endpoint

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4) Authentication docs

Document auth separately and clearly:

• API key auth
• Bearer/JWT auth
• OAuth2 flows if applicable
• token acquisition examples
• headers required
• rate limits and error responses for auth failures

This is often better as a dedicated “Authentication” page plus endpoint-level auth blocks.

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5) Examples management

Best practice:

• include multiple examples per endpoint
• show both minimal and realistic payloads
• keep examples in the OpenAPI spec when possible
• use real-looking but fake data
• annotate edge cases and error examples

If your docs tool is weak on examples, store them in JSON/YAML files and import them into the spec during build.

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6) Build/publish pipeline

A typical stack:

• OpenAPI YAML/JSON
• Node.js build step to lint and bundle spec
• Redocly CLI or Stoplight tooling
• Static hosting on Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages, or S3/CloudFront
• CI checks to validate spec on every PR

Helpful tools:

• redocly lint
• swagger-cli
• speccy
• openapi-generator if you want SDKs too

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My default recommendation

If you want the most balanced modern stack:

• OpenAPI 3.1
• Redocly
• Redocly CLI in CI
• Static hosting on Vercel/Netlify
• Swagger UI or Postman linked for “try it”
• Auth + examples embedded in the spec

This gives you:

• great public docs
• maintainable spec-driven workflow
• strong support for auth and examples
• easy deployment

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If you want a more opinionated setup by team size

Solo / small team

• OpenAPI 3.1
• Redocly
• GitHub Actions for validation
• Vercel/Netlify hosting

Product + design collaboration

• Stoplight
• OpenAPI 3.1
• mock server
• CI validation
• static publish

Developer portal / enterprise

• Backstage or Portals + OpenAPI docs
• Redocly/Stoplight underneath
• auth guidance, changelog, SDK downloads, API status pages

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Important features to include

No matter the stack, make sure you support:

• authentication overview
• request examples
• response examples
• error codes and auth errors
• rate limiting docs
• pagination/filtering docs
• “copy code” snippets
• environment selection: sandbox vs production
• versioning strategy

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If you want, I can also recommend:

1. a cheapest stack,
2. a best UX stack, or
3. a self-hosted open-source stack.