# HG changeset patch
# User Steve Losh <steve@stevelosh.com>
# Date 1278991727 14400
# Node ID 6c9b5986c7e133ed9211c979b12d63876f0560ac
# Parent  d193a88bd231dac319d97ae58f19f2393ac48f0f
docs: start the api docs

diff -r d193a88bd231 -r 6c9b5986c7e1 docs/api.rst
--- a/docs/api.rst	Mon Jul 12 23:21:23 2010 -0400
+++ b/docs/api.rst	Mon Jul 12 23:28:47 2010 -0400
@@ -1,6 +1,24 @@
 API
 ===
 
+hg-review takes Mercurial's approach to API stability:
+
+* The command line interface is fairly stable and will not break often.
+* File formats will not change often.
+* The internal implementation may change frequently -- there are no guarantees
+  of stability.
+
+Providing a stable CLI means that (possibly non-GPL) programs can interact with
+hg-review easily without fear of constant breaking.
+
+Stable file formats mean that older versions of hg-review will be able to work
+with review data from newer versions (albeit with reduced functionality).
+
+*Not* providing a stable internal implementation allows hg-review's code to be
+kept clean and elegant. It means that Python programs will needs to use
+subprocesses to avoid breaking, but this is a tradeoff that the author feels is
+worth making.
+
 Data Repository
 ---------------
 
diff -r d193a88bd231 -r 6c9b5986c7e1 docs/index.rst
--- a/docs/index.rst	Mon Jul 12 23:21:23 2010 -0400
+++ b/docs/index.rst	Mon Jul 12 23:28:47 2010 -0400
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2
 
-   dev
+   api
    hacking
    licensing