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Api Design Principles

Checked
wshobson·vlatest·backend·MIT

Helps with API, design, principles as part of developing backend services and APIs workflows.

Repository

Install on your platform

Showing Claude Code. One command installs this skill into any of the agents below.

  1. 1

    Run this in your project

    terminal
    $ npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill api-design-principles -a claude-code

  2. Uses the open-source skills CLI and needs Node.js. Add -g to install it for your user instead of this project.

What we know about this skill

Publisher

wshobson

Taken from the source listing. We haven't verified who controls this account.

Install target

Live repository

Not pinned. Installing fetches whatever the repository holds at the time you run the command.

No human has reviewed this code. The checks below are a static scan of the files at one commit — nobody has run this skill or judged whether it works. A skill runs with whatever access you give your agent, so read the source before you install it.

Automated safety checks

scanned

This skill passed all 6 checks. We read its files at one commit and looked for the things that make a skill dangerous to run — not for whether it works.

  • Declares what it does: passed

    SKILL.md parses and declares a name and a description.

    SKILL.md exists, its frontmatter parses, and it declares a name and a description.

  • No undeclared network calls: passed

    Makes no network calls.

    Every host the skill dials — from its scripts, its config endpoints or the commands it tells the agent to run — is either well-known package and API infrastructure or declared in its own frontmatter. Links in documentation are not counted.

  • No obfuscated payloads: passed

    No encoded or obfuscated payloads.

    No base64, hex or compressed blob is decoded and then executed, and no encoded shell commands.

  • No credential access: passed

    Reads no keys, tokens, keychains or credential files.

    Neither the code nor the SKILL.md instructions read SSH keys, cloud credentials, keychains, token stores, browser cookie databases or dotfiles that hold secrets.

  • No pipe-to-shell installers: passed

    No pipe-to-shell or download-and-run installers.

    No `curl … | sh` pattern, in the code or in the instructions, that runs code fetched at run time.

  • Pinned to a commit: passed

    Scanned wshobson/agents at 46891e7e60.

    The exact upstream commit SHA that was scanned is recorded, so the result refers to specific bytes.

Commit
46891e7e60
Manifest
plugins/backend-development/skills/api-design-principles/SKILL.md
Scanned
6 files, 1,741 lines
This is a static scan, not a review. It reads the skill's files; it does not run them, and it cannot tell you whether the skill is any good or whether the code does what its description says. A skill runs with whatever access you give your agent.
What each check looks for →

About this skill

What it does

The API design principles skill provides guidance on creating clean, scalable, and maintainable APIs. It covers best practices such as versioning, resource naming, request/response formatting, authentication methods, and error handling to ensure robust API development.

When to use it

  • Designing a new RESTful or GraphQL API for a web application
  • Refactoring an existing API to improve usability and performance
  • Preparing documentation for developers who will consume your API

Key capabilities

  • Explains RESTful design principles
  • Covers versioning strategies (e.g., URL path, header, query parameter)
  • Guides on consistent resource naming and endpoint structure
  • Recommends authentication methods like OAuth2 or JWT
  • Provides best practices for error handling and response formatting

Example prompts

  • "What are the best practices for designing a RESTful API?"
  • "How should I version my API endpoints?"
  • "What is the recommended way to handle errors in an API?"

Tips & gotchas

  • Always consider future scalability when choosing naming conventions and endpoint structures.
  • Use tools like Swagger or Postman to document and test your API as you develop it.