# Standards your API speaks

URL: /products/api/standards · Id: `page:products/api/standards`

> An API can also speak outside Standards, such as SCIM for a Customer's directory, by mapping each Standard's operations onto the Startup's own Verbs.

An API can also speak a [Standard](/business/nouns/standard): an outside spec its callers already use. The [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) maps the Standard's operations onto its own [Verbs](/business/nouns/verb), and the platform's translator does the rest.

## Why a Customer asks for one
Harbor Residential's identity provider adds and removes its staff with SCIM 2.0. Leaseline's API speaks SCIM, so Harbor Residential points its provider at Leaseline's SCIM path, and each change reaches [`Tenant.invite`](/business/nouns/tenant/invite) and the membership Verbs. Nobody at Leaseline writes a route.

## What a translated call gets
The translator takes the request in the Standard's shape and runs the mapped Verb as an ordinary [Action](/business/nouns/action).

| On every translated call | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Keys and [Permissions](/business/nouns/permission) | Checked as on any route |
| [Limits](/business/nouns/limit) and [Meters](/business/nouns/meter) | The same Limits apply, and usage meters against the caller's plan |
| [Events](/business/nouns/event) | One Action and its Events, kept forever |
| Errors | Each refusal in the Standard's own error shape |

The Standard's path sits on the Startup's own API host, under its [Publication](/business/nouns/publication), such as `/scim/v2`.

## Standards the platform speaks
| Standard | Callers | Maps onto |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SCIM 2.0 | A [Customer](/business/nouns/customer)'s identity provider | `Tenant.invite` and membership Verbs |
| Chat completions | Model clients calling an [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) sold as a [Product](/business/nouns/product) | The Agent's own Verb |
| S3 | Clients that read and write stored objects | [File](/business/nouns/file) Verbs |
| OIDC discovery | Clients signing in to a Startup | The Startup's sign-in |
| RSS | Feed readers following a [Site](/business/nouns/site) | [Page](/business/nouns/page) lists |
| Standard Webhooks | Receivers verifying deliveries | Every [Watch](/business/nouns/watch) delivery |

An [Interface](/business/nouns/interface) declares each one in `conformsTo`. [Standards](/code/api/guides/standards) shows the mapping in code.