Api Design Patterns

This is a comprehensive reference covering REST, GraphQL, and gRPC patterns with practical decision trees for choosing between them. It walks through versioning strategies, pagination approaches (offset, cursor, keyset), authentication methods, and error handling with clear examples of what works and what doesn't. The quick reference cards are genuinely useful for remembering things like when cursor pagination beats offset or why you'd pick gRPC for microservices but not browser clients. It's structured for progressive disclosure, so you get the essentials up front and can dive into dedicated files for authentication or versioning details when you need them. Good for both designing new APIs and auditing existing ones against established patterns.

skills.sh installs: 579
GitHub stars: 79
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

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

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

API Design Patterns

Design robust, scalable APIs using proven patterns for REST, GraphQL, and gRPC with proper versioning, authentication, and error handling.

Quick Reference

API Style Selection:

REST: Resource-based CRUD, simple clients, HTTP-native caching
GraphQL: Client-driven queries, complex data graphs, real-time subscriptions
gRPC: High-performance RPC, microservices, strong typing, streaming

Critical Patterns:

Versioning: URI (/v1/users), header (Accept: application/vnd.api+json;version=1), content negotiation
Pagination: Offset (simple), cursor (stable), keyset (performant)
Auth: OAuth2 (delegated), JWT (stateless), API keys (service-to-service)
Rate limiting: Token bucket, fixed window, sliding window
Idempotency: Idempotency keys, conditional requests, safe retry

See references/ for deep dives: rest-patterns.md, graphql-patterns.md, grpc-patterns.md, versioning-strategies.md, authentication.md