api-client-builder

name	api-client-builder
domain	agent-tools
skill_type	skill
description	Guide for creating API clients using the established patterns in the agent- packages repository (like servicenow-api and gitlab-api). Use this when tasked with building a new API integration or creating client classes for REST or GraphQL APIs from OpenAPI specs or documentation.
license	MIT
tags	["api","client","integration","development","python","pydantic","graphql","gql"]
metadata	{"version":"1.2.1","author":"Genius"}

API Client Builder

This skill provides step-by-step guidance on how to build a robust, standardized API client for our Pydantic AI agents. It supports both REST (using requests) and GraphQL (using gql) APIs, with Pydantic models and decorators from agent_utilities.

Standard API Client Structure

All API clients MUST use the api/ subdirectory pattern (the monolithic api_client.py single-file approach is deprecated):

{pkg_dir}/
├── auth.py                      # Authentication setup
├── api_client.py                 # Facade re-exporting from api/ (backward compat)
├── models.py                     # Pydantic input/output models
├── api/
│   ├── __init__.py              # Expose ApiClientBase + all domain clients
│   ├── api_client_base.py       # HTTP handler base class
│   └── api_client_{domain}.py   # Domain-specific API methods
└── gql_client.py                # Optional: GraphQL client

Creating an API Client

1. Analyze the API Output/Input

Review the provided API documentation (OpenAPI JSON/YAML, developer guides). Identify endpoints, authentication methods, request parameters, and response schemas. Determine if the API supports GraphQL (create both REST + GraphQL clients if so).

[!IMPORTANT] Wrap the WHOLE API — no stubs. These repos exist to fully wrap their service's API; the MCP layer is a thin shim on top. A class DomainClient: pass placeholder is not acceptable (the jena/kafka/camunda/archi rebuilds replaced exactly such stubs). Enumerate every endpoint group the service exposes and implement a method for each — e.g. Apache Jena Fuseki = SPARQL query/update + Graph Store Protocol + the /$/ admin API (datasets, stats, tasks, backup, compact); Kafka REST Proxy = clusters/topics/ partitions/records/consumer-groups/brokers/ACLs. Coverage is auditable via scripts/verify_api_integration.py; a near-zero score means the wrapper is a stub. Keep heavy/native client libraries (e.g. confluent-kafka) as optional extras and import them lazily so the wheel build never depends on a C toolchain.

2. Formulate Pydantic Models

Create {pkg_dir}/models.py:

• Input Models: Pydantic models for API request parameters and bodies (include page_token/limit for pagination)
• Response Models: Pydantic models to parse and validate JSON responses
• Use references/api_models_template.py.template for reference

3. Create the API Client Class Structure

{pkg_dir}/api/api_client_base.py

• Inherits from a base HTTP handler or constructs a base client using requests.Session()
• Configures TLS verification, proxies, headers, base URL, and low-level HTTP calls (_request, get, post, etc.)
• Reads auth credentials from standard env vars

{pkg_dir}/api/api_client_{domain}.py

• Inherits from ApiClientBase
• Exposes pythonic methods mapping directly to target service endpoint actions
• One file per functional domain (e.g., api_client_docker.py, api_client_system.py)

{pkg_dir}/api/__init__.py

• Exposes all classes for clean imports: from {pkg_dir}.api import ApiClientBase, ApiClientDocker

{pkg_dir}/api_client.py (Facade)

• Re-exports from api/ for backward compatibility:

  from {pkg_dir}.api import ApiClientBase, ApiClientSystem  # noqa: F401
  

4. Implement Methods and Decorators

For each endpoint:

• Unpack arguments using Pydantic models (Model(**kwargs))
• Check required parameters — raise agent_utilities.exceptions.MissingParameterError if absent
• Use @require_auth decorator from agent_utilities.decorators on authenticated methods
• Make HTTP requests using the initialized session
• Parse JSON responses with appropriate Pydantic response model
• Handle errors: 401/403 → AuthError/UnauthorizedError, invalid params → ParameterError
• Return standard response objects

5. Create GraphQL Client (Optional)

If the target API supports GraphQL, create {pkg_dir}/gql_client.py:

1. Use gql.Client with gql.transport.requests.RequestsHTTPTransport
2. Implement execute_gql(query_str, variables, operation_name) for raw query execution
3. Mirror REST methods with GraphQL equivalents
4. Use cursor-based pagination (first/after)
5. Apply @require_auth decorator
6. Add gql = ["gql>=4.0.0"] to pyproject.toml optional dependencies
7. Register as optional module with _GQL_AVAILABLE flag in __init__.py

6. Configure Authentication (auth.py)

Standard environment variable naming:

Pattern	Example	Notes
{SERVICE}_URL	PORTAINER_URL	NOT _BASE_URL or _INSTANCE
{SERVICE}_TOKEN	PORTAINER_TOKEN	Prefer over _API_KEY
{SERVICE}_SSL_VERIFY	PORTAINER_SSL_VERIFY	NOT _VERIFY or _AGENT_VERIFY
{SERVICE}_USERNAME	PORTAINER_USERNAME	For basic auth
{SERVICE}_PASSWORD	PORTAINER_PASSWORD	For basic auth

First-party env vars: Preserve names when the upstream service defines them (e.g., GITHUB_TOKEN, LANGFUSE_PUBLIC_KEY).

Standard auth.py pattern:

import os
from {pkg_dir}.api import ApiClient{Domain}

def get_client() -> ApiClient{Domain}:
    """Initialize authenticated API client."""
    try:
        return ApiClient{Domain}(
            url=os.getenv("{SERVICE}_URL", ""),
            token=os.getenv("{SERVICE}_TOKEN", ""),
            ssl_verify=os.getenv("{SERVICE}_SSL_VERIFY", "True").lower() in ("true", "1", "yes"),
        )
    except Exception as e:
        raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to initialize {service} client: {e}") from e

Referencing the Templates

Template	Purpose
api_client_template.py.template	REST API client class
api_models_template.py.template	Pydantic input/output models
api_graphql_template.py.template	GraphQL API client class

Ecosystem Drift Check (MANDATORY)

After completing the API client, run a drift audit to confirm the project meets all ecosystem standards. This is a hard gate — the package is not complete until it passes with 0 missing items.

cd {project_dir} && echo "=== Drift Audit ===" \
  && for f in README.md CHANGELOG.md AGENTS.md pyproject.toml requirements.txt \
    .pre-commit-config.yaml .bumpversion.cfg .gitignore .gitattributes \
    .dockerignore .env; do \
    [ -f "$f" ] && echo "✅ $f" || echo "❌ $f MISSING"; done \
  && for f in docs/index.md docs/overview.md docs/concepts.md; do \
    [ -f "$f" ] && echo "✅ $f" || echo "❌ $f MISSING"; done \
  && for f in tests/conftest.py tests/test_concept_parity.py \
    tests/test_init_dynamics.py tests/test_startup.py; do \
    [ -f "$f" ] && echo "✅ $f" || echo "❌ $f MISSING"; done \
  && grep -q "ECO-4.0" docs/concepts.md && echo "✅ ECO-4.0 bridge" \
    || echo "❌ ECO-4.0 bridge MISSING"

[!IMPORTANT] A new package is not complete until it passes the drift check with 0 missing items.