Zapier's first API
Hey HN! We launched Zapier way back in 2012 on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4138415 and thought we'd return home to announce something special and hopefully exciting :) We are trying to finally live up to the "API" in our name with Zapier's first universal API: Natural Language Actions – https://zapier.com/l/natural-language-actions API docs – https://nla.zapier.com/api/v1/docs (to be fair, we have published APIs before that can access Zapier data, but never before one devs can use to directly call the 5k+ apps /…
In plain words
Zapier released Natural Language Actions, its first universal API that allows developers to programmatically call over 5,000 apps and 20,000 actions through a single interface. The API accepts natural language input, making it suitable for integrating with chatbots and assistants. Developers can use it to perform tasks like sending Slack messages, retrieving Google Sheet rows, or drafting Gmail replies without building individual integrations for each service.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hey HN! We launched Zapier way back in 2012 on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4138415 and thought we'd return home to announce something special and hopefully exciting :) We are trying to finally live up to the "API" in our name with Zapier's first universal API: Natural Language Actions – https://zapier.com/l/natural-language-actions API docs – https://nla.zapier.com/api/v1/docs (to be fair, we have published APIs before that can access Zapier data, but never before one devs can use to directly call the 5k+ apps / 20k+ actions on our platform) For example, you can use the API to: * Send messages in Slack * Retrieve a row in a Google Sheet * Draft a reply in Gmail * ... and thousands more actions with one universal API We optimized NLA for use cases that receive user input in natural language (think chatbots, assistants, or any product/feature using LLMs) -- but not strictly required! Folks have asked for an API for 10 years and I've always been slightly embarrassed we didn't have one. We hesitated because we did not want to pass along our universe of complexity to end devs. With the help of LLMs we found some cool patterns to deliver the API we always wanted. My co-founder/CTO Bryan did an interview with Garry on YC blog with more details: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/building-apis-for-ai-an-int... We also published a LangChain integration to show off some possibilities: * Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEK_9wLYEHU * Jupyter notebook: https://github.com/hwchase17/langchain/blob/master/docs/modules/utils/examples/zapier.ipynb We know the API is not perfect but we're excited and eager for feedback to help shape it.
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