Api Design Patterns

A solid reference for REST API design covering 38 rules across resource naming, error handling, security, pagination, versioning, and response formatting. It pushes you toward the standard patterns like using nouns not verbs in URLs, returning consistent error structures with request IDs, and implementing proper rate limiting headers. The examples are concrete and show both wrong and right approaches. Use it when you're designing new endpoints or reviewing existing APIs and want to follow industry conventions from Zalando, Microsoft, and Google. It's prescriptive rather than exploratory, so if you're building something intentionally unconventional, you'll be fighting it.

skills.sh installs: 984
GitHub stars: 102
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add asyrafhussin/agent-skills --skill api-design-patterns --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

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API Design Patterns

RESTful API design principles for building consistent, developer-friendly APIs. Contains 38 rules across 7 categories covering resource design, error handling, security, pagination, versioning, response format, and documentation.

Metadata

Version: 2.0.0
Rule Count: 38 rules across 7 categories
License: MIT

When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:

Designing new API endpoints
Reviewing existing API structure
Implementing error handling and validation
Setting up pagination, filtering, and sorting
Planning API versioning strategy
Configuring API security (auth, CORS, rate limiting)
Writing API documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger)

Rule Categories by Priority

Priority	Category	Impact	Prefix
1	Resource Design	CRITICAL	`rest-`
2	Error Handling	CRITICAL	`error-`
3	Security	CRITICAL	`sec-`
4	Pagination & Filtering	HIGH	`page-`, `filter-`, `sort-`
5	Versioning	HIGH	`ver-`
6	Response Format	MEDIUM	`resp-`
7	Documentation	MEDIUM	`doc-`