Spree comes with a fully-featured API that allows it to operate in a fully headless mode (if you wish). This means that you can use Spree as a backend for your custom storefront, mobile app, or any other application that needs to interact with an e-commerce platform.
To use the APIs, install the spree_api gem with a version corresponding to your version of Spree. If you're using spree_starter as a base for your project or you have the spree gem in your Gemfile the API will be included out of the box.
Currently there are two types of APIs:
- Storefront API - that's designed to allow customers to interact with the store via external applications (e.g. Vue Storefront or a dedicated mobile app).
- Platform API - that provides management capabilities, allowing third party apps to perform actions otherwise available via the admin panel.
Spree also offers a legacy v1 API, that's been extracted to spree_api_v1 gem in Spree 4.5. It is not recommended to use it in new projects, but it's still available for existing ones.