salt-api manages netapi modules which are modules that (usually) bind to a port and start a service. Each netapi module will have specific requirements for third-party libraries and configuration (which goes in the master config file). Read the documentation for each netapi module to determine what is needed.
For example, the rest_cherrypy netapi module requires that CherryPy be installed and that a rest_cherrypy section be added to the master config that specifies which port to listen on.