spring-boot-api-design

name	spring-boot-api-design
description	Standards for OpenAPI, Versioning, and Global Error Handling. Use when designing Spring Boot APIs with OpenAPI specs, versioning, or global error handling. (triggers: **/*Controller.java, openapi, swagger, versioning, problemdetails)

Spring Boot API Design Standards

Priority: P0

Implementation Guidelines

OpenAPI (Swagger)

• SpringDoc: Use springdoc-openapi-starter-webmvc-ui.
• Annotations: Use @Operation and @ApiResponse. Keep clean.
• Schema: Define examples in @Schema on DTOs.

API Versioning

• Strategy: Prefer URI Versioning (/api/v1/) for caching simplicity.
• Deprecation: Use @Deprecated + OpenAPI flag.

Error Handling (RFC 7807)

• ProblemDetails: Enable spring.mvc.problem-details.enabled=true.
• Extension: Extend ProblemDetail with custom fields if needed.
• Security: NEVER expose stack traces in API errors.

Anti-Patterns

• No Map<K,V> responses: Return typed DTO records instead.
• No Header Versioning: Use URI versioning; headers are hard to test/cache.
• No hidden APIs: Document all endpoints with Swagger/OpenAPI.

References

• Implementation Examples