api-application-programming-interface

name	API / Application Programming Interface
slug	api
version	1.3.7
description	Integrates and debugs third-party REST and GraphQL APIs: auth, rate limits, pagination, webhooks, with reference for 147 services. Use when calling Stripe, OpenAI, GitHub, Slack, Twilio, or any external service, when a request that should work returns 401, 403, or 429, times out, hits a CORS error, or silently returns wrong data, when choosing an OAuth flow, signing requests, adding retries with backoff and idempotency keys, verifying webhook signatures, consuming SSE streams, uploading files, polling async jobs, caching with ETags, or syncing API data into a local database — with per-service gotchas and curl examples. Not for designing or building your own API.
homepage	https://clawic.com/skills/api
changelog	Full coverage pass: deeper guides, situation-named files, and per-user configuration
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REST and GraphQL API reference for 147 services: authentication, endpoints, rate limits, and per-service gotchas, plus pattern playbooks for everything that goes wrong between you and an API. User preferences live in ~/Clawic/data/api/ — the only location this skill writes (see setup.md on first use). If you have data at an old location (~/api/ or ~/clawic/api/), move it to ~/Clawic/data/api/, and say in one line that you moved it and from where.

When To Use

• User names a service to integrate ("call the Stripe API", "post to a Slack channel") → its section via API Categories below
• A request that "should work" returns 401/403/429, times out, or silently returns wrong data → debug.md and the pattern files
• Designing the client side of any integration: retries, pagination, webhooks, streaming, file transfer, async job polling
• Choosing between similar providers in a category (email, auth, media) → compare sections in the same category file
• Not for building your OWN API (routing, schema design, versioning your endpoints) — this skill documents consuming others' APIs

Quick Reference

Situation	Read
Endpoints/auth for a named service	Its category file — API Categories table below
401/403 that "should work", OAuth flow choice, JWT rejected	auth.md
Works in curl but not in code, works locally but not in prod, TLS errors, mysterious 400s	debug.md
Duplicated/missing items across pages, loop never ends	pagination.md
Timeouts, retries, flaky upstream, circuit breakers, provider outage	resilience.md
429s, rate-limit headers, quota budgeting, spending less of the limit	rate-limits.md
Polling for changes, ETag/304 conditional requests, what to cache client-side	caching.md
Mirroring API data locally, incremental sync, detecting deletions, sync token expired	sync.md
Blocked by CORS, calling an API from frontend code, key would ship to the browser	browser.md