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Apache OpenWhisk

Apache OpenWhisk is an open-source serverless cloud platform that executes functions in response to events at any scale. It supports multiple programming languages and provides a rich programming model for creating serverless APIs and event-driven applications.

agent ready

Real signal across most facets with visible, nameable gaps — the contract exists but is thin, or the portal is good while governance and commercial terms are absent.

Kin Score

API Evangelist profiles Apache OpenWhisk the way a machine reads it — 88 machine-readable artifacts across 6 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.

Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — Apache OpenWhisk scores 52.9/100 (developing), with a separate agent-readiness read of 48/100 (agent ready). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.

Kin Score

This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
Composite quality — 52.9/100 · developing
Contract Quality 17.2 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 3.9 / 20
Commercial Clarity 7.9 / 20
Operational Transparency 4.8 / 13
Governance 10.4 / 12
Discoverability 8.8 / 10
Agent readiness — 48/100 · agent ready
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 15 / 15
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7
Typed Event Surface 0 / 6
Agent Skills 0 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

How we profile Apache OpenWhisk

Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for Apache OpenWhisk. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.

APIs 6

Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Apache OpenWhisk Actions API

The Actions API from Apache OpenWhisk — 2 operation(s) for actions.

Apache OpenWhisk Activations API

The Activations API from Apache OpenWhisk — 2 operation(s) for activations.

Apache OpenWhisk Namespaces API

The Namespaces API from Apache OpenWhisk — 3 operation(s) for namespaces.

Apache OpenWhisk Packages API

The Packages API from Apache OpenWhisk — 2 operation(s) for packages.

Apache OpenWhisk Rules API

The Rules API from Apache OpenWhisk — 2 operation(s) for rules.

Apache OpenWhisk Triggers API

The Triggers API from Apache OpenWhisk — 2 operation(s) for triggers.

Pricing Plans 1

Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the six things the Kin Score reads for commercial clarity.

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Rate Limits 1

Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Apache Openwhisk Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals let a buyer model the financial operations of an API before it's live. We profile them for the same reason we profile pricing: the money is part of the contract.

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Features 7

The notable capabilities this provider advertises, captured as structured features so they can be searched and compared instead of read one landing page at a time.

Notable capabilities this provider offers.

Serverless Functions

Execute stateless functions in response to events without managing infrastructure

Multi-Language Support

Supports Node.js, Python, Java, Go, PHP, Ruby, Swift, and custom Docker runtimes

Event Triggers

Named event channels that fire actions based on external events

Action Sequences

Compose multiple actions into sequential pipelines

Package System

Pre-built integrations via /whisk.system namespace

REST API

Full REST API for managing all platform resources programmatically

Docker Actions

Custom runtime support via Docker containers for any language

Scroll within the panel for all 7 ·

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts give the data shared meaning across APIs. We profile them because semantics are what let a machine reconcile 'customer' here with 'customer' somewhere else.

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Apache Openwhisk Context

18 classes · 37 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 2

Governance rulesets we run against this provider's specs — the automated checks behind parts of the score. Profiling them makes the quality bar explicit and re-runnable, not a matter of opinion.

Apache OpenWhisk API Rules

5 rules · 4 warnings

SPECTRAL

Apache OpenWhisk API Rules

17 rules · 5 errors · 8 warnings

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 18

Standalone JSON Schema definitions describe the data models behind the API. We profile them so the shapes are validatable on their own — useful long after a single request is forgotten.

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

ActionExec

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

ActionLimits

3 properties

JSON SCHEMA

ActionRequest

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Action

9 properties

JSON SCHEMA

ActivationRef

1 properties

JSON SCHEMA

ActivationResponse

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Activation

11 properties

JSON SCHEMA

ActivationSummary

5 properties

JSON SCHEMA

EntityRef

2 properties

JSON SCHEMA

KeyValue

2 properties

JSON SCHEMA

NamespaceEntities

3 properties

JSON SCHEMA

NamespaceLimits

3 properties

JSON SCHEMA

PackageRequest

2 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Package

9 properties

JSON SCHEMA

RuleRequest

2 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Rule

7 properties

JSON SCHEMA

TriggerRequest

2 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Trigger

7 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Scroll within the panel for all 18 ·

JSON Structure 18

JSON Structure captures the data shapes in a form built for tooling — a complement to JSON Schema that keeps the model machine-legible.

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Apache Openwhisk Action Exec Structure

4 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Action Limits Structure

3 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Action Request Structure

4 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Action Structure

9 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Activation Ref Structure

1 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Activation Structure

11 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Entity Ref Structure

2 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Key Value Structure

2 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Package Request Structure

2 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Package Structure

9 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Rule Request Structure

2 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Rule Structure

7 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Trigger Request Structure

2 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Apache Openwhisk Trigger Structure

7 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Scroll within the panel for all 18 ·

Examples 18

Real request and response payloads are what turn a spec from abstract into obvious — and they're one of the twelve things an agent needs to call an API correctly on the first try.

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Scroll within the panel for all 18 ·

Security Posture 3

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Apache Openwhisk Authentication

http · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Apache Openwhisk Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Apache Openwhisk Vulnerability Disclosure

security.txt · contact published

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

An x-agentic-access contract marks which operations are safe for an agent to run on its own and which need a human in the loop. It is the difference between an API an agent can use and one it can use safely.

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Apache Openwhisk Agentic Access

24 operations · 11 acting

24 operations · 11 acting

AGENTIC

Use Cases 5

What developers actually build with this provider — captured so the catalogue answers 'what is this for', not just 'what does this expose'.

What developers build with this provider.

Event-Driven Microservices

Build loosely coupled microservices that respond to events

IoT Data Processing

Process sensor and device events at scale without infrastructure management

API Backend

Create REST APIs backed by serverless functions

Scheduled Tasks

Run periodic jobs using alarm triggers

Chatbots & Webhooks

Handle Slack, GitHub, and other webhook events

Integrations 6

Pre-built integrations with other platforms tell you where this provider already fits in a stack.

Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.

Slack

Respond to Slack events and slash commands

GitHub

Automate workflows based on GitHub repository events

Apache Kafka

Process Kafka message stream events

Cloudant

React to CouchDB/Cloudant database changes

IBM Cloud

Available as IBM Cloud Functions on IBM Cloud

Kubernetes

Deploy OpenWhisk on Kubernetes using Helm charts

Resources

Every other property we hold for Apache OpenWhisk — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

Design & Contract 3

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

← All providers · Data indexed from github.com/api-evangelist/apache-openwhisk · machine-readable index on apis.io