api-design

Good API design makes the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard. This skill helps you create APIs that are a pleasure to use and maintain.

<quick_start> Resource naming: Nouns, plural, lowercase, hyphenated (/users, /blog-posts)

HTTP methods: GET (read), POST (create), PUT (replace), PATCH (update), DELETE (remove)

Status codes: 200 OK, 201 Created, 204 No Content, 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 404 Not Found, 429 Rate Limited

Pagination: Prefer cursor-based for real-time data; use ?limit=20&cursor=xxx

Versioning: URL path (/api/v1/) is clearest approach </quick_start>

<success_criteria> API design is successful when:

• Resources use plural nouns with consistent naming
• HTTP methods match semantics (GET=read, POST=create, etc.)
• Error responses follow consistent format with code, message, details, requestId
• Pagination implemented (cursor or offset based)
• Rate limiting headers included (X-RateLimit-Limit, Remaining, Reset)
• Versioning strategy defined before breaking changes needed </success_criteria>

<core_principles>

API Design Principles

1. Consistency - Same patterns everywhere (naming, errors, pagination)
2. Predictability - Developers can guess how things work
3. Simplicity - Easy cases should be easy, complex cases possible
4. Backwards compatibility - Don't break existing clients
5. Self-documenting - Clear naming, helpful error messages </core_principles>

<rest_basics>

RESTful Conventions

Resource Naming

# GOOD: Nouns, plural, lowercase, hyphenated
GET    /users
GET    /users/{id}
GET    /users/{id}/posts
GET    /blog-posts
GET    /api/v1/user-preferences

# BAD: Verbs, singular, mixed case, underscores
GET    /getUser
GET    /user/{id}
GET    /User/{id}/getPosts
GET    /blog_posts

HTTP Methods

Method	Purpose	Idempotent	Safe	Request Body
GET	Read resource	Yes	Yes	No
POST	Create resource	No	No	Yes
PUT	Replace resource	Yes	No	Yes
PATCH	Partial update	No*	No	Yes
DELETE	Remove resource	Yes	No	No

*PATCH is idempotent if you apply the same patch

CRUD Operations

# Collection operations
GET    /users           # List all users
POST   /users           # Create a user

# Single resource operations
GET    /users/{id}      # Get one user
PUT    /users/{id}      # Replace user
PATCH  /users/{id}      # Update user fields
DELETE /users/{id}      # Delete user

# Nested resources
GET    /users/{id}/posts       # User's posts
POST   /users/{id}/posts       # Create post for user
GET    /posts/{id}/comments    # Post's comments

Actions (Non-CRUD Operations)

# When you need actions, use verbs as sub-resources
POST   /users/{id}/activate
POST   /users/{id}/deactivate
POST   /orders/{id}/cancel
POST   /invoices/{id}/send
POST   /auth/login
POST   /auth/logout
POST   /auth/refresh

Status Codes

Code	Meaning	When to Use
200	OK	Successful GET, PUT, PATCH
201	Created	Successful POST that creates
204	No Content	Successful DELETE
400	Bad Request	Invalid input, validation error
401	Unauthorized	Missing/invalid authentication
403	Forbidden	Authenticated but not authorized
404	Not Found	Resource doesn't exist
409	Conflict	Duplicate, state conflict
422	Unprocessable	Validation failed (alternative to 400)
429	Too Many Requests	Rate limited
500	Server Error	Unexpected server error
</rest_basics>

<error_handling>

Error Responses

Consistent Error Format

// Standard error response
interface ErrorResponse {
  error: {
    code: string;           // Machine-readable code
    message: string;        // Human-readable message
    details?: ErrorDetail[]; // Field-level errors
    requestId?: string;     // For support/debugging
  };
}

interface ErrorDetail {
  field: string;
  message: string;
  code: string;
}

Examples

// 400 Bad Request - Validation error
{
  "error": {
    "code": "validation_error",
    "message": "Invalid request parameters",
    "details": [
      { "field": "email", "message": "Invalid email format", "code": "invalid_format" },
      { "field": "age", "message": "Must be at least 13", "code": "min_value" }
    ],
    "requestId": "req_abc123"
  }
}

// 401 Unauthorized
{
  "error": {
    "code": "unauthorized",
    "message": "Invalid or expired authentication token",
    "requestId": "req_abc123"
  }
}

// 403 Forbidden
{
  "error": {
    "code": "forbidden",
    "message": "You don't have permission to access this resource",
    "requestId": "req_abc123"
  }
}

// 404 Not Found
{
  "error": {
    "code": "not_found",
    "message": "User not found",
    "requestId": "req_abc123"
  }
}

// 429 Rate Limited
{
  "error": {
    "code": "rate_limited",
    "message": "Too many requests. Please retry after 60 seconds",
    "requestId": "req_abc123"
  }
}

Implementation

// Error class
class ApiError extends Error {
  constructor(
    public statusCode: number,
    public code: string,
    message: string,
    public details?: ErrorDetail[]
  ) {
    super(message);
  }
}

// Error handler middleware
function errorHandler(error: Error, req: Request, res: Response) {
  const requestId = req.headers['x-request-id'] || crypto.randomUUID();

  if (error instanceof ApiError) {
    return res.status(error.statusCode).json({
      error: {
        code: error.code,
        message: error.message,
        details: error.details,
        requestId,
      },
    });
  }

  // Log unexpected errors
  logger.error('Unexpected error', { error, requestId });

  // Don't expose internal details
  return res.status(500).json({
    error: {
      code: 'internal_error',
      message: 'An unexpected error occurred',
      requestId,
    },
  });
}

</error_handling>

Cursor-Based (Recommended)

// Request
GET /posts?limit=20&cursor=eyJpZCI6MTAwfQ

// Response
{
  "data": [...],
  "pagination": {
    "hasMore": true,
    "nextCursor": "eyJpZCI6MTIwfQ",
    "prevCursor": "eyJpZCI6MTAwfQ"
  }
}

Pros: Consistent results, handles real-time data Cons: Can't jump to page N

Offset-Based

// Request
GET /posts?page=2&limit=20
// or
GET /posts?offset=20&limit=20

// Response
{
  "data": [...],
  "pagination": {
    "page": 2,
    "limit": 20,
    "total": 150,
    "totalPages": 8
  }
}

Pros: Can jump to any page Cons: Inconsistent with real-time data, slow on large tables

Implementation (Cursor)

// Encode/decode cursor
function encodeCursor(data: object): string {
  return Buffer.from(JSON.stringify(data)).toString('base64url');
}

function decodeCursor(cursor: string): object {
  return JSON.parse(Buffer.from(cursor, 'base64url').toString());
}

// Query with cursor
async function getPosts(limit: number, cursor?: string) {
  const where: any = {};

  if (cursor) {
    const { id } = decodeCursor(cursor);
    where.id = { lt: id };
  }

  const posts = await db.post.findMany({
    where,
    orderBy: { id: 'desc' },
    take: limit + 1, // Fetch one extra to check hasMore
  });

  const hasMore = posts.length > limit;
  const data = hasMore ? posts.slice(0, -1) : posts;

  return {
    data,
    pagination: {
      hasMore,
      nextCursor: hasMore ? encodeCursor({ id: data[data.length - 1].id }) : null,
    },
  };
}

Use query params: ?status=active, ?sort=-created_at (prefix - for desc), ?fields=id,name,email. Validate with Zod schema, build Prisma where clause from parsed filters.

See reference/filtering-sorting.md for full query parameter patterns and implementation.

URL Path Versioning (Recommended)

GET /api/v1/users
GET /api/v2/users

Pros: Clear, easy to understand Cons: More maintenance

Header Versioning

GET /api/users
Accept: application/vnd.api+json; version=2

Pros: Clean URLs Cons: Hidden, harder to test

When to Version

Create a new version when:

• Removing fields from responses
• Changing field types or formats
• Removing endpoints
• Changing authentication

Don't create a new version for:

• Adding new optional fields
• Adding new endpoints
• Adding new optional parameters
• Bug fixes

<rate_limiting>

Rate Limiting

Include headers: X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset. Return 429 with Retry-After when exceeded. Use sliding window algorithm (e.g., @upstash/ratelimit).

See reference/rate-limiting.md for tier definitions and implementation. </rate_limiting>

Topic	Reference File	When to Load
REST patterns	reference/rest-patterns.md	Endpoint design
Error handling	reference/error-handling.md	Error responses
Pagination	reference/pagination.md	List endpoints
Filtering & sorting	reference/filtering-sorting.md	Query parameters
Rate limiting	reference/rate-limiting.md	Throttling
Versioning	reference/versioning.md	API evolution
Documentation	reference/documentation.md	OpenAPI, docs
Checklist	reference/checklist.md	Pre-launch validation

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