REST API Design and Implementation

VerifiedSafe

Provides guidance on REST API design principles (resource naming, HTTP methods, status codes) and implementation using FastAPI, including authentication with JWT. Useful when building or documenting API endpoints for web services.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevelopmentIntermediate
606/2/2026
Claude Code
#rest-api#api-design#fastapi#http-methods#jwt-authentication

Recommended for

Our review

This skill provides guidance and code examples for designing and implementing REST APIs, including resource naming, HTTP methods, status codes, authentication, and documentation.

Strengths

  • Covers both design principles and practical implementation with FastAPI code examples.
  • Concrete examples of resource naming, HTTP methods, and status codes.
  • Includes JWT authentication and OpenAPI documentation examples.

Limitations

  • Limited to the FastAPI framework and Python language.
  • Does not cover advanced topics like versioning, caching, or rate limiting.
  • Authentication examples are basic and do not cover all scenarios.
When to use it

Use this skill when designing or implementing a REST API, especially with Python and FastAPI.

When not to use it

Avoid this skill if you are working with other languages or frameworks, or if you need guidance on GraphQL, gRPC, or more complex architectures.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score95/100

The skill provides educational content on REST API design with example code and curl commands; it does not instruct destructive actions, exfiltration, or disabling safety features. While it uses Bash for curl examples, these are benign and typical for API testing.

No concerns found

Examples

Design a REST API for a task management system
Design a REST API for a task management system with proper resource naming, HTTP methods, and status codes. Provide examples for endpoints like tasks, subtasks, and users.
Implement a FastAPI endpoint with JWT authentication
Implement a secure FastAPI endpoint that uses JWT authentication for creating and listing agents. Include the authentication dependency and error handling.
Validate API design with OpenAPI
Generate an OpenAPI specification for a REST API that manages products, with endpoints for CRUD operations, pagination, and filtering.

name: restapi description: REST API design, implementation, and best practices. Activate for API endpoints, HTTP methods, status codes, authentication, and API documentation. allowed-tools:

  • Bash
  • Read
  • Write
  • Edit
  • Glob
  • Grep

REST API Skill

Provides comprehensive REST API design and implementation capabilities for the Golden Armada AI Agent Fleet Platform.

When to Use This Skill

Activate this skill when working with:

  • API endpoint design
  • HTTP request/response handling
  • API authentication
  • OpenAPI documentation
  • API testing

REST API Design Principles

Resource Naming

```

Good - nouns, plural

GET /agents GET /agents/{id} POST /agents PUT /agents/{id} DELETE /agents/{id}

Nested resources

GET /agents/{id}/tasks POST /agents/{id}/tasks

Bad - verbs, actions

GET /getAgents POST /createAgent ```

HTTP Methods

| Method | Usage | Idempotent | |--------|-------|------------| | GET | Read resource | Yes | | POST | Create resource | No | | PUT | Replace resource | Yes | | PATCH | Partial update | No | | DELETE | Delete resource | Yes |

Status Codes

```

Success

200 OK - Successful GET, PUT, PATCH 201 Created - Successful POST 204 No Content - Successful DELETE

Client Errors

400 Bad Request - Validation error 401 Unauthorized - Authentication required 403 Forbidden - Not permitted 404 Not Found - Resource not found 409 Conflict - Duplicate/conflict 422 Unprocessable - Semantic validation error

Server Errors

500 Internal Error - Server error 502 Bad Gateway - Upstream error 503 Service Unavailable - Temporary overload ```

API Implementation (FastAPI)

```python from fastapi import FastAPI, HTTPException, Query, Path, Depends, status from typing import List, Optional from pydantic import BaseModel, Field

app = FastAPI(title="Golden Armada API", version="1.0.0")

Models

class AgentCreate(BaseModel): name: str = Field(..., min_length=1, max_length=100) type: str = Field(..., pattern="^(claude|gpt|gemini)$")

class AgentResponse(BaseModel): id: str name: str type: str status: str created_at: datetime

Endpoints

@app.get("/agents", response_model=List[AgentResponse]) async def list_agents( skip: int = Query(0, ge=0), limit: int = Query(100, ge=1, le=1000), status: Optional[str] = Query(None) ): """List all agents with pagination and filtering.""" return await agent_service.list(skip=skip, limit=limit, status=status)

@app.get("/agents/{agent_id}", response_model=AgentResponse) async def get_agent(agent_id: str = Path(..., description="Agent ID")): """Get a specific agent by ID.""" agent = await agent_service.get(agent_id) if not agent: raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Agent not found") return agent

@app.post("/agents", response_model=AgentResponse, status_code=201) async def create_agent(agent: AgentCreate): """Create a new agent.""" return await agent_service.create(agent)

@app.put("/agents/{agent_id}", response_model=AgentResponse) async def update_agent(agent_id: str, agent: AgentCreate): """Replace an existing agent.""" existing = await agent_service.get(agent_id) if not existing: raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Agent not found") return await agent_service.update(agent_id, agent)

@app.delete("/agents/{agent_id}", status_code=204) async def delete_agent(agent_id: str): """Delete an agent.""" deleted = await agent_service.delete(agent_id) if not deleted: raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Agent not found") ```

Authentication

JWT Authentication

```python from fastapi import Depends, HTTPException, status from fastapi.security import OAuth2PasswordBearer from jose import JWTError, jwt

oauth2_scheme = OAuth2PasswordBearer(tokenUrl="token")

async def get_current_user(token: str = Depends(oauth2_scheme)): credentials_exception = HTTPException( status_code=status.HTTP_401_UNAUTHORIZED, detail="Could not validate credentials", headers={"WWW-Authenticate": "Bearer"}, ) try: payload = jwt.decode(token, SECRET_KEY, algorithms=[ALGORITHM]) user_id: str = payload.get("sub") if user_id is None: raise credentials_exception except JWTError: raise credentials_exception return await get_user(user_id)

Protected endpoint

@app.get("/protected") async def protected_route(user: User = Depends(get_current_user)): return {"user": user.email} ```

API Key Authentication

```python from fastapi.security import APIKeyHeader

api_key_header = APIKeyHeader(name="X-API-Key")

async def verify_api_key(api_key: str = Depends(api_key_header)): if api_key != VALID_API_KEY: raise HTTPException(status_code=403, detail="Invalid API key") return api_key ```

Error Handling

```python class ErrorResponse(BaseModel): error: str message: str details: Optional[dict] = None

@app.exception_handler(ValueError) async def value_error_handler(request, exc): return JSONResponse( status_code=400, content=ErrorResponse( error="validation_error", message=str(exc) ).dict() )

@app.exception_handler(Exception) async def general_exception_handler(request, exc): return JSONResponse( status_code=500, content=ErrorResponse( error="internal_error", message="An unexpected error occurred" ).dict() ) ```

API Testing with curl

```bash

GET

curl -X GET "http://localhost:8000/agents"
-H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN"

POST

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/agents"
-H "Content-Type: application/json"
-H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN"
-d '{"name": "agent-1", "type": "claude"}'

PUT

curl -X PUT "http://localhost:8000/agents/123"
-H "Content-Type: application/json"
-d '{"name": "updated-agent", "type": "claude"}'

DELETE

curl -X DELETE "http://localhost:8000/agents/123"
-H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN" ```

OpenAPI Documentation

```python from fastapi import FastAPI

app = FastAPI( title="Golden Armada API", description="AI Agent Fleet Platform API", version="1.0.0", docs_url="/docs", redoc_url="/redoc", openapi_url="/openapi.json" )

Access documentation at:

- Swagger UI: http://localhost:8000/docs

- ReDoc: http://localhost:8000/redoc

- OpenAPI JSON: http://localhost:8000/openapi.json

```

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