The API is intended to allow separate implementations of single services to be composed into a single logical service, by connecting servers together through the API. Responses and requests not intended for a server with upstream and downstream connections respectively can be forwarded transparently along the API connections;

The API is text-based, and can be inspected by humans using either TCP/IP packet sniffing or connecting directly to services to be inspected;

The API uses a minimalistic line-orientated protocol, in which each line is comprised of one or more words, and uses shell-style word-escaping conventions (as well as C-style backslash escapes). It is relatively simple to implement, requires little to no external dependencies, and is modest in its usage of network bandwidth.