# 2024: GenAI APIs and microservices (/docs/journey/2024-genai-apis)

---
type: Document
title: "2024: GenAI APIs and microservices"
description: The year LLM features were shipped as clean, documented APIs, and the first paid client app was built.
status: stable
order: 5
generated: { by: "process:claude-code", at: 2026-08-26T19:45:00Z }
sources:
  - id: github-repos
    title: GitHub API, repositories owned by rrizwan98, read 26 August 2026
    resource: https://api.github.com/search/repositories?q=user:rrizwan98
  - id: journey-note
    title: "From Predictive AI to Forward Deployed Engineer: My 6-Year Journey, Raza Rizwan, July 2026"
    resource: "Raza Rizwan, From Predictive AI to Forward Deployed Engineer: My 6-Year Journey, a July 2026 note kept as FDE-Journey-Raza-Rizwan.md; the text behind the former portfolio journey page"
verified:
  - { by: "human:rrizwan98", at: 2026-08-30T12:30:00Z }
ksor:
  audience: [public]
  approval: { by: "human:rrizwan98", at: 2026-08-30T12:30:00Z }
trust_tier: human-reviewed
build_id: sha256:d9f989bee8fa4c15cf0f7f1572f9e9a18305ef4e2ce0c3cfb6a5a421ead6dc1d
dirty: true
---

Fewer repositories, more of them private: 11 in the year, 6 of them private.
For the first time more than half the work is not public, which is what it
looks like when learning turns into client work.[^github-repos]

## What happened

- **LLM-powered APIs.** AI-Powered-APIs and GPT Actions in February and
  March, then two resume tools, a generator and a CV optimiser, in
  July.[^journey-note]
- **Production microservices.** An online-mart platform with separate
  customer and admin APIs in July.
- **A real client.** A plant-identification app, built in August and
  reworked as microservices in October and November. It is private, and it
  is the first line in this record that a customer paid for.
- **FastAPI as the backbone.** Every AI feature shipped as a documented
  API.[^journey-note]

## The public repositories

| Created | Repository | What it is |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 2024-02-10 | AI-APIs | AI APIs |
| 2024-02-11 | AI-Powered-APIs | LLM-powered API services |
| 2024-03-01 | GPT-action-and-APIs | GPT Actions backed by APIs |
| 2024-05-02 | portfolio | Portfolio site |
| 2024-07-27 | online-mart-customer-api | Customer-side API of the online-mart platform |

## Private work

Six private repositories: the online-mart admin API, two resume tools (a
generator and a CV optimiser), and three repositories of a plant-identification
app for a real client: the app, its microservice, and the identification
service.[^github-repos] They are counted here and never named.

## What this era taught

LLMs are only useful when wrapped in reliable services that a business can
call.[^journey-note]

Next: [2025: AI agents](2025-ai-agents.md).

[^github-repos]: GitHub API, repositories owned by rrizwan98, read 26 August 2026: 11 repositories created in 2024 (5 public, 6 private).
[^journey-note]: From Predictive AI to Forward Deployed Engineer: My 6-Year Journey, Raza Rizwan, July 2026.