API Design

Comprehensive guidance for designing, documenting, and evolving APIs across REST, GraphQL, and gRPC paradigms, covering resource modeling, versioning strategies, error handling standards, pagination, rate limiting, and contract-first development.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill for:

• Designing a new REST, GraphQL, or gRPC API from scratch
• Reviewing an existing API contract for consistency and best practices
• Choosing between REST, GraphQL, and gRPC for a given use case
• Implementing pagination, filtering, and sorting patterns
• Designing error response formats (RFC 7807 Problem Details)
• Planning API versioning and evolution strategies
• Setting up rate limiting and authentication headers
• Writing OpenAPI, GraphQL schema, or protobuf definitions
• Migrating between API styles (REST to GraphQL, REST to gRPC)

Trigger phrases: "API design", "REST API", "GraphQL schema", "gRPC proto", "API versioning", "pagination", "error handling", "OpenAPI", "API contract", "rate limiting", "HATEOAS"