designing-apislisted

# Designing APIs Design well-structured, scalable APIs using REST, GraphQL, or event-driven patterns. Focus on resource design, versioning, error handling, pagination, rate limiting, and security. ## When to Use This Skill Use when: - Designing a new REST, GraphQL, or event-driven API - Establishing API design standards for a team or organization - Choosing between REST, GraphQL, WebSockets, or message queues - Planning API versioning and breaking change management - Defining error response formats and HTTP status code usage - Implementing pagination, filtering, and rate limiting patterns - Designing OAuth2 flows or API key authentication - Creating OpenAPI or AsyncAPI specifications Do NOT use for: - Implementation code (use `api-patterns` skill for Express, FastAPI code) - Authentication implementation (use `auth-security` skill for JWT, sessions) - API testing strategies (use `testing-strategies` skill) - API deployment and infrastructure (use `deploying-applications` skill) ## Core Design Principles ### Resource-Oriented Design (REST) Use nouns for resources, not verbs in URLs: ``` ✓ GET /users List users ✓ GET /users/123 Get user 123 ✓ POST /users Create user ✓ PATCH /users/123 Update user 123 ✓ DELETE /users/123 Delete user 123 ✗ GET /getUsers ✗ POST /createUser ``` Nest resources for relationships (limit depth to 2-3 levels): ``` ✓ GET /users/123/posts ✓ GET /users/123/posts/456/comments ✗ GET