api-design

name	api-design
description	REST API design patterns for resource naming, HTTP methods, status codes, pagination strategy, error envelopes, versioning, and rate limiting. Use when designing, reviewing, or refactoring HTTP APIs and endpoint contracts.

API Design

Design resource-oriented HTTP APIs with stable contracts, predictable errors, and explicit pagination and versioning choices.

When to Activate

• Design a new HTTP or REST endpoint
• Review existing route naming or handler contracts
• Choose between offset and cursor pagination
• Define status codes and error payloads
• Introduce a breaking API change
• Add rate limiting or idempotency behavior
• Generate or review an OpenAPI spec

Resource Design

Concern	Preferred	Avoid
Collections	/users	/getUsers
Single resource	/users/{user_id}	/user?id=123
Nested resource	/users/{user_id}/tokens	/userTokens/{user_id}
Actions	/jobs/{job_id}:cancel when no resource exists	/cancelJob/{job_id}

Rules:

• Use plural nouns for collections.
• Use kebab-case for multi-word path segments.
• Put identifiers in the path and filters in the query string.
• Model actions as resources first; use action suffixes only when CRUD does not fit.

BAD

GET /getUserOrders?userId=42&limit=5000

GOOD

GET /users/42/orders?limit=100&cursor=eyJpZCI6Im9yZF8xIn0=

HTTP Semantics

Method	Use When	Idempotent	Response
GET	Read resources	Yes	200, 206, 304
POST	Create resource or submit command	No	201, 202
PUT	Replace full resource	Yes	200, 204
PATCH	Partial update	Usually	200, 204
DELETE	Remove resource	Yes	204

Situation	Code	Notes
Created synchronously	201 Created	Return Location header
Accepted async work	202 Accepted	Return job resource
Validation failure	400 Bad Request or 422 Unprocessable Entity	Match validator semantics
Authentication missing	401 Unauthorized	Include auth challenge when applicable
Permission denied	403 Forbidden	Caller is authenticated
Missing resource	404 Not Found	Do not leak existence across tenants
Version conflict	409 Conflict	ETag or business conflict
Rate limited	429 Too Many Requests	Include reset headers

Pagination

Strategy	Use When	Strengths	Tradeoffs
Offset pagination	Small admin lists, stable datasets	Simple for humans	Slow on large offsets, duplicate/skipped rows under writes
Cursor pagination	User-facing feeds, large tables, append-heavy data	Stable under writes, faster scans	Harder to debug manually

Default:

• Use cursor pagination for externally consumed list endpoints.
• Use offset pagination only for bounded internal tooling or page-number UX.

{
  "data": [{ "id": "usr_123", "email": "[e-mail]" }],
  "page": {
    "next_cursor": "eyJpZCI6InVzcl8xMjMifQ==",
    "has_more": true
  }
}

Error Envelope

Use one shape across the API:

{
  "error": {
    "code": "validation_error",
    "message": "email must be a valid address",
    "details": [
      { "field": "email", "reason": "invalid_format" }
    ],
    "request_id": "req_01HV..."
  }
}

Rules:

• code is stable and machine-readable.
• message is human-readable and safe to log.
• details is optional and field-scoped.
• Always include request_id for support correlation.

BAD

{ "message": "Something went wrong" }

GOOD

{
  "error": {
    "code": "rate_limited",
    "message": "Too many requests",
    "request_id": "req_123"
  }
}

Versioning and Rate Limiting

Approach	Preferred	Avoid
Public API version	/v1/... at the router boundary	Version per endpoint ad hoc
Breaking change rollout	Ship /v2, deprecate /v1, publish sunset date	Mutate /v1 response shape silently
Additive changes	New optional fields	Reusing field names with changed meaning

Header	Meaning
X-RateLimit-Limit	Total quota in current window
X-RateLimit-Remaining	Requests left in window
X-RateLimit-Reset	Unix timestamp when quota resets
Retry-After	Seconds until retry after 429

Checklist

• Paths use plural nouns and stable identifiers
• HTTP method matches the state transition
• Success and failure codes are explicit for each endpoint
• List endpoints declare pagination strategy and bounds
• Error responses use the shared error envelope
• Breaking changes are isolated behind a version boundary
• Rate-limited endpoints return quota headers
• Examples show realistic URLs and payloads