When is an API overengineered? [closed]

Question

I despise working with overengineered APIs that don't make simple things simple. Nonetheless, I'm working on designing an API for an open-source library and I'm starting to feel that I'm falling into the overengineering trap. I really can't tell for sure because, of course, I wrote the darn thing, so how it works is more obvious to me than anyone else. What are some warning signs from a developer's perspective that your API might be overengineered?

Answer 1

"What are some warning signs from a developer's perspective that your API might be overengineered?"

No use cases.

If you can't run through simple "to do this" scenarios, you're not designing a useful API with specific use cases in mind.

Your documentation should be those use cases.

Features that don't directly address the use cases are probably over-engineering.