[API docs drift detection]

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acme/api#847
Merged

Migrate auth from API key headers to Bearer tokens

+47−232 files changed
src/middleware/auth.ts
const key = req.headers["x-api-key"];
if (!key) return res.status(401);
+const token = req.headers
+ .authorization?.replace("Bearer ", "");
+if (!token) return res.status(401);
Drift detected
docs.acme.com
DocsAPI ReferenceAuthentication

API Authentication Guide

Last updated 3 weeks ago · 4 min read

All API requests require authentication. Choose one of the methods below to get started.

Stale — PR #847

Header Authentication

Include your API key in the X-Api-Key header with every request to authenticate your application.

Suggested fix · 95%

Bearer Token Authentication

Include your API key as a Bearer token in the Authorization header with every request.

It always starts the same way: a developer merges a PR that renames an endpoint, changes an auth flow, or deprecates a parameter. Somewhere, a help article describes behavior that no longer exists. Three days later, a customer files a support ticket. Or doesn't — and just leaves.

Editorial style

Every merged PR is a chance your docs go stale.

PR merge

Code changes a feature.

A developer merges a pull request that updates the authentication flow, changes an API response, or deprecates a parameter.

docs drifting

Docs become inaccurate.

Somewhere, a help article, API reference, or onboarding guide now describes behavior that no longer exists.

customer confusion

Customers hit a dead end.

Support tickets spike. Trust erodes. Developers build against wrong examples. Revenue leaks quietly.

sound familiar?

If any of these hit close to home, you need DocsCanary.

We just shipped a major API change. Our docs are definitely wrong and we have no idea where.

We get support tickets every week that boil down to: "your docs are outdated."

A new engineer spent their first week following our Getting Started guide. Half of it didn't work.

We have hundreds of docs pages and no automated way to know which ones are stale.

Every sprint we say we'll update the docs. We never do. The backlog just grows.

A customer churned and cited confusing documentation as the reason.

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real data from real audits

We've analyzed 62+ docs sites. Here's what we found.

Not a sample. Not a benchmark study. Actual findings from real docs audits run on this platform.

62/100
Average health score
across all audited sites
38%
Score below 70
the threshold we call "at risk"
1 in 3
Pages are stale
on the average docs site
0
Teams who knew
before running the audit
🔐

Auth & API endpoints are the #1 source of drift

Authentication flows, request shapes, and SDK interfaces change constantly — and the public API docs almost never keep up.

🤖

AI coding agents now read your docs — and hallucinate when they're stale

Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot scrape your public docs to write integration code. Stale endpoints become confidently broken code shipped into your customers' apps.

⏱️

Drift is weeks old before anyone notices

The average gap between a code change and a docs update is 11 days. Most teams find out when a customer files a ticket.

JM

Jeanine, Founder

Built DocsCanary after watching engineering teams spend weeks reacting to docs drift that a five-minute automated check would have caught.

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Docs Health

Search pages...
Total Pages
847
In Sync
612
Needs Review
161
Stale
74
Documentation Health
72% In Sync
19% Drifting
9% Stale
PageStatusLast CheckedActions
API Authentication GuideZendesk
Stale2h ago
View suggestion →
Webhook ConfigurationGitBook
Drifting4h ago
View suggestion →
Rate Limits & QuotasZendesk
In Sync1h ago
Getting Started GuideReadMe
Drifting6h ago
View suggestion →
SDK InstallationGitBook
In Sync30m ago
Error Codes ReferenceNotion
In Sync2h ago
The state of SaaS docs

Documentation debt is real.

Most teams don't know their docs are stale until customers tell them.

⏱️

Docs lag behind code by days or weeks before anyone notices

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Customers hit outdated API references, deprecated endpoints, wrong instructions

🔕

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DocsCanary — API docs drift detection for B2B SaaS | DocsCanary