The Advantages of SCAPI

SCAPI represents a cloud-native, headless-first evolution that modernizes how developers build and customers experience commerce.

The transition to SCAPI is more than a version update; it is a foundational shift in how Salesforce Commerce Cloud enables digital interactions. SCAPI is architected as a set of RESTful APIs designed for high-scale, customer-facing storefronts, merchant tools, and complex backend integrations. Unlike its predecessor, which often relied on session-based state and heavy server-side processing, SCAPI is built on a stateless foundation that prioritizes response times and platform stability.

SCAPI does not simply plumb systems together; it is more about transforming our feature rich and scalable commerce engine into an autonomous, data-driven “brain” for your enterprise by utilizing Einstein and Data-Cloud. Salesforce Commerce API provides a level of global stability and scalability that our customers ask for to be successful in their business.

Salesforce Commerce has pivoted its entire development focus to SCAPI:

• AI & Composable First: Future platform innovations, including AI-powered “Agentic Merchandising” (planned for 2026) and the Composable Storefront, are built natively on SCAPI.
• Versioning Policy: SCAPI uses a Forward Compatibility policy, meaning additive changes (new attributes) do not require a version bump, reducing the “version upgrade” fatigue common with OCAPI’s strict policy and hence the potential of breaking changes. In fact SCAPI is running on the same version since the beginning while still being constantly enhanced with new features and updates.
• Maintenance Mode for OCAPI: OCAPI is strictly in maintenance-only mode; new features (like AI-assisted updates or OCI integrations) are exclusive to SCAPI.

For customers and business owners, the shift to SCAPI translates to a more resilient and personalized storefront:

• Native Personalization: SCAPI’s Shopper Context API’s defining technical advantage is its ability to handle complex real-time personalization natively (device type, shopper segment, geolocation, store ID) without the custom hook “hacks” required in OCAPI.
• Traffic Resilience: SCAPI features Load Shedding (for ECOM endpoints) and Rate Limiting (for non-ECOM endpoints) to protect the backend during high-traffic peaks. OCAPI does not support anything like this.
• Hybrid Power: The new Hybrid Auth allows seamless session syncing between legacy SFRA/SiteGenesis pages and modern PWA storefronts, preventing “lost baskets” during transitions.
• Future-Proof Capabilities: All Salesforce Commerce Cloud innovation is focused on SCAPI.

SCAPI is built to reduce the “friction” common in OCAPI development:

• Standards-Based: Uses OpenAPI Spec (OAS3), standard OAuth2 and standard error formats, allowing developers to use industry-standard tools instead of proprietary Salesforce protocols.
• Enhanced SDKs: Provides modern JavaScript SDKs (isomorphic-sdk, commerce-sdk) that streamline integration with React/Next.js frameworks like sf.next our next generation composable storefront.
• Custom Extensibility: Unlike OCAPI, SCAPI supports Custom APIs (based on OAS3), allowing developers to expose custom script logic as first-class REST endpoints with built-in auth. Because Custom APIs are integrated into the SCAPI gateway, they benefit from native eCDN layer validation, server-side caching, and circuit-breaking mechanisms that protect the backend from runaway processes. It is highly regarded by partners and customers as a fully fledged customization capability to fulfill customer specific process requirements, rather than being a gap filler only.
• Frictionless Engineering: The new B2C commerce CLI provides over 200 commands that replace tedious, manual Business Manager tasks. It not only uses SCAPI capabilities to discover SCAPI endpoints easily, it also helps with instant Code Generation, ie for custom APIs and Hooks.
• Debugging & Observability: Offers Verbose Logging, external correlation IDs, and real-time metrics via LogCenter, which are often missing or limited in OCAPI. End to end tracking and tracing from Frontend, via SCAPI to the commerce cloud backend provides full request insights.

Open Commerce API (OCAPI) has been in the platform since 2014 and is used by many customers on the B2C Commerce platform. B2C Commerce API (SCAPI) was introduced in 2020 as a new API infrastructure built for headless commerce.

Our emphasis on headless commerce and our Composable Storefront drives a need for superior APIs and channeling our efforts into SCAPI. New endpoints and features are being added regularly to SCAPI only.

• New Projects: All new implementations must use SCAPI exclusively.
• Existing Projects: If you are currently using OCAPI, you must begin planning your migration to SCAPI.
• Note: Per policy, OCAPI will remain available for two more years with security updates, but no new features will be added.
• Hybrid Transition: During your migration, use the Shopper Login and API Access Service (SLAS) to bridge both API sets. SLAS allows you to use a single authentication token across both OCAPI and SCAPI, enabling a phased, low-risk transition.

When mapping your integration, keep these three structural changes in mind:

In OCAPI, you often managed JWTs directly. In SCAPI, SLAS is the mandatory gatekeeper. It provides a standard OAuth2 flow that allows you to share sessions between a headless storefront (PWA Kit) and legacy OCAPI hooks if necessary.

OCAPI caches the entire API response. If one small piece of data changes, the whole cache is invalidated. SCAPI uses Object-Level Caching. If you request a product, SCAPI caches the product object itself. If a later request asks for that same product as part of a different set, it is pulled from the cache instantly.

In OCAPI, personalizing a price usually required a “Modify Response” hook (server-side script). In SCAPI, you use the Shopper Context API. You send the shopper’s attributes (like “Member Level” or “Region”) to the API, and SCAPI returns the correct price or promotion natively without running custom code.

As of May 2026, the following items are still best handled via OCAPI:

• System information: Low-level server status and maintenance indicators.
• Complex Data API Tasks: Certain niche administrative tasks for which an Admin SCAPI service hasn’t been released.

We will continue to provide SCAPI functionality for selected use cases for system information and complex Data API tasks.

1. Audit your OCAPI usage: Identify all endpoints currently in use.
2. Map to SCAPI: Use our OCAPI to SCAPI Mapping Reference to find equivalent services.
3. Implement SLAS: Switch your authentication layer to SLAS to begin a unified token approach.
4. Review SDKs: Leverage the Salesforce Commerce SDK or Commerce SDK React to accelerate your refactoring.

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