Services
A service is the top-level entity in SpecVault — it represents one API whose spec versions are tracked and diffed.
What is a service?
In SpecVault, a service maps one-to-one with an API you want to track. If you have a Payments API, an Orders API, and a Users API, you create three separate services. Each service has its own version history, subscriber list, and diff log.
A service has three fields:
- Name — a human-readable label for the API (e.g.
Payments API,Orders v2). Used in email alerts and the dashboard. - Team — the owning team or person responsible for this API. Used for display and filtering; it doesn't control access in the current version.
- Base URL — the base URL of the running service (e.g.
https://api.example.com/v2). Used for context in alerts and the dashboard. SpecVault does not make requests to this URL during normal operation — it's informational.
Creating a service
From the main dashboard, click New Service. Fill in the name, team, and base URL. The service is created immediately — no spec version is required at creation time.
A unique ID is assigned to each service. This ID is used in API calls when publishing specs programmatically:
POST /api/services/{service_id}/specs
The service ID is visible in the URL when viewing the service detail page.
Editing a service
Click the edit icon on the service card or the Edit button on the service detail page. You can update the name, team, and base URL at any time. Editing a service does not affect existing spec versions or subscribers.
Deleting a service
Deleting a service removes the service record, all associated spec versions, all subscribers, and the diff history for that service. This action is permanent and cannot be undone.
Deletion is protected by a confirmation dialog in the dashboard. The API requires an explicit DELETE /api/services/{service_id} request — it cannot be triggered accidentally.
Services list view
The main dashboard shows all services as cards. Each card displays:
- Service name and team
- Number of spec versions published
- Number of active subscribers
- Most recent publish date
- Whether the latest version had breaking changes
How many services can I create?
There is no hard limit on the number of services. SpecVault is designed to handle hundreds of services on a single instance. Performance at scale is primarily constrained by SQLite's write throughput — if you're publishing specs from many services simultaneously at high frequency, consider staggering publishes or migrating to a PostgreSQL backend (roadmap item).