While ADDR (Align-Define-Design-Refine) started as a design process for contract-first API design, it has expanded into a series of playbooks. Each playbook leverages the fundamentals of the ADDR process for a specific aspect of software delivery.
Below is a list of our current ADDR playbooks that we have placed into practice.
ADDR for Web API Design
Use ADDR to design web APIs for your product, business capability platform, or enterprise IT through a focus on outcomes and design-first principles. This is the most popular ADDR playbook, as it has been taught for over 12 years in organizations ranging from a few developers to organizations with over 10,000 developers (~2500 agile delivery teams). The process was documented in the book, “Principles of Web API Design: Delivering Value with APIs and Microservice” (Addison-Wesley). This is how it all started.
Explore the Web API Design playbook →
Prompt Starters for ADDR
Accelerate your use of ADDR using LLMs and our starter prompts. Reduce your efforts producing the various artifacts and refinement techniques of ADDR with our latest playbook.
Not sure which LLM model is best for ADDR? Download our recent report to learn more and see the prompt starters in action.
Explore the Prompt Starters playbook →
ADDR for MCP Tools
This playbook details how ADDR can be leveraged to design thoughtful, context-rich MCP tools and servers. Preliminary findings indicate that using ADDR for MCP Tools reduces token usage and helps to unify your LLMs and backend APIs more effectively, accelerating your AI transformation. Explore the playbook to see how each ADDR phase applies to intent-based tool design.