APIs + SDKs = The Plugin Dream Team

Last updated at Tue, 21 Mar 2023 17:07:15 GMT

The formula for love at first automation

February has us feeling all mushy and appreciative of the wonderful partnerships it takes to live in today’s tech world, and as a result, we thought we’d talk about one of our favorite pairings: application programming interfaces (APIs) and software development kits (SDKs). Specifically, we wanted to highlight our InsightConnect SDKs and the APIs of our most forward-thinking customers.

First, let’s break down what APIs and SDKs are. An API is an interface that allows you to interact with other systems, while an SDK is a tool that helps you develop integrations with APIs. When used together, the opportunities are endless.

At Rapid7, we love making security easier for our customers, especially the organizations that are working toward innovation and need to get there fast. Our SDKs were created for organizations with a strong development team that would rather build a plugin or enhance an existing one than pay for someone else to do it or wait for it to be developed by someone else. They’re extremely easy to use and allow organizations to take their security programs even further.

The SDKs available in InsightConnect let your technical team scale up more efficiently and effectively. It’s free to download the SDK tooling and begin development with the guidance of our video tutorials. We’ve made it as simple as possible so that your team can create the plugins they need to accelerate security operations.

Creating new plugins is as easy as 1, 2, 3

1. Create a plugin spec document: The plugin specification document (or plugin spec) is a blueprint for the plugin. This is a YAML file that breaks down the plugin by name, description of the service to be integrated with, and actions to be supported.
2. Generate the code: Once the plugin spec is finished, you can feed the document through the plugin generator, a component of the plugin tooling. It will read the spec file and create a directory for every action. The tool supports two languages, Python and Go.
3. Call in your APIs: Once you’ve generated the shell, add your code for the relevant actions you plan to develop, including necessary API calls.

Spreading the love to address threats

Another benefit of SDKs is the collaborative nature of the Insight cloud plugin world. Security teams from around the world use the InsightConnect ecosystem to openly share plugins and ideas on taking care of security threats. Security is one of few technical arenas where developers are more than willing to share their knowledge and specific solutions, because what’s good for one organization is generally good for the security of all organizations.