From the earliest HTTP requests to CGI-driven endpoints, the Web’s 1990–1994 interface ideas quietly shaped the patterns that power today’s GitHub API automation—webhooks, CI triggers, and machine-to-machine workflows.
A chronological look at 1990–1994, when the Web’s earliest HTTP interfaces and URL conventions laid the groundwork for modern web APIs—providing historical context for developer-first platforms like Stripe.
From password-protected directories to CGI scripts that behaved like proto-APIs, the early Web (1990–1994) experimented with access control long before the industry standardized API keys and developer portals.
JSON didn’t exist in the early 1990s, but the Web’s first HTTP interfaces, CGI scripts, and MIME content types created the practical need—and the technical habits—that later made lightweight JSON APIs feel inevitable.