Treat third-party API data as input
Apply the same validation and transport requirements to upstream API responses that you apply to user input.
The reframe: partner trust belongs in contracts and monitoring, not in blind parsing. Upstream data crosses a boundary When your API calls another API, it imports another system's mistakes. A compromised vendor, stale sandbox, bad redirect, oversized response, or changed schema can become injection, data leak, denial of service, or corrupted business logic in your service. Validate the response contract Safe consumers define what they will accept: transport security, authentication, host allowlist, redirect rules, timeout, retry budget, maximum body size, content type, schema, and allowed field values. Anything outside that contract should fail in a controlled way before it reaches…
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