discover-api

What this skill does

# API Skills Discovery

Provides automatic access to comprehensive API design, authentication, and implementation skills.

## When This Skill Activates

This skill auto-activates when you're working with:
- REST API design and implementation
- GraphQL schema design
- API authentication (JWT, OAuth 2.0, API keys, sessions)
- API authorization (RBAC, ABAC, permissions)
- Rate limiting and throttling
- API versioning strategies
- Error handling and validation
- HTTP methods, status codes, endpoints

## Available Skills

### Quick Reference

The API category contains 8 specialized skills:

1. **rest-api-design** - RESTful resource modeling, HTTP semantics, URL conventions
2. **graphql-schema-design** - GraphQL types, resolvers, N+1 problem prevention
3. **api-authentication** - JWT, OAuth 2.0, API keys, session management
4. **api-authorization** - RBAC, ABAC, policy engines, permission systems
5. **api-rate-limiting** - Token bucket, sliding window, rate limiting algorithms
6. **api-versioning** - API versioning, deprecation, backward compatibility
7. **api-error-handling** - RFC 7807 errors, validation, standardized responses
8. **api-design-rules** - 35 opinionated rules for API design

### Load Full Category Details

For complete descriptions and workflows:

Read ../api/INDEX.md


This loads the full API category index with:
- Detailed skill descriptions
- Usage triggers for each skill
- Common workflow combinations
- Cross-references to related skills

### Load Specific Skills

Load individual skills as needed:


# Core API design
Read ../api/rest-api-design.md
Read ../api/graphql-schema-design.md

# Security and access control
Read ../api/api-authentication.md
Read ../api/api-authorization.md

# Production hardening
Read ../api/api-rate-limiting.md
Read ../api/api-error-handling.md
Read ../api/api-versioning.md

# Rules and best practices
Read ../api/api-design-rules.md


## Common Workflows

### New REST API
**Sequence**: REST design → Authentication → Authorization

Read ../api/rest-api-design.md      # Resource modeling, HTTP methods
Read ../api/api-authentication.md   # User authentication
Read ../api/api-authorization.md    # Access control


### New GraphQL API
**Sequence**: GraphQL schema → Authentication → Authorization

Read ../api/graphql-schema-design.md  # Schema design, resolvers
Read ../api/api-authentication.md     # User authentication
Read ../api/api-authorization.md      # Field-level permissions


### API Hardening
**Sequence**: Rate limiting → Error handling → Versioning

Read ../api/api-rate-limiting.md    # Prevent abuse
Read ../api/api-error-handling.md   # Standardized errors
Read ../api/api-versioning.md       # Manage evolution


### Complete API Stack
**Full implementation from scratch**:


# 1. Design phase
Read ../api/rest-api-design.md

# 2. Security phase
Read ../api/api-authentication.md
Read ../api/api-authorization.md
Read ../api/api-rate-limiting.md

# 3. Production readiness
Read ../api/api-error-handling.md
Read ../api/api-versioning.md


## Skill Selection Guide

**Choose REST API skills when:**
- Building traditional web services
- Need simple CRUD operations
- Working with mobile apps or SPAs
- Require caching and HTTP semantics

**Choose GraphQL skills when:**
- Clients need flexible data fetching
- Reducing over-fetching or under-fetching
- Building aggregation layers
- Need strong typing for APIs

**Authentication vs Authorization:**
- **Authentication** (api-authentication.md): Who are you? (Login, JWT, OAuth)
- **Authorization** (api-authorization.md): What can you do? (Permissions, RBAC)

**Production considerations:**
- Always implement rate limiting for public APIs
- Use versioning from day one
- Standardize error responses early

## Integration with Other Skills

API skills commonly combine with:

**Database skills** (`discover-database`):
- API endpoints → Database queries
- Connection pooling for API servers
- Query optimization for API performance

**Testing skills** (`discover-testing`):
- Integration tests for API endpoints
- Contract testing for API consumers
- Load testing for API performance

**Frontend skills** (`discover-frontend`):
- API client libraries
- Data fetching patterns
- Error handling in UI

**Infrastructure skills** (`discover-infra`, `discover-cloud`):
- API deployment strategies
- Load balancing and scaling
- API gateways and proxies

## Usage Instructions

1. **Auto-activation**: This skill loads automatically when Claude Code detects API-related work
2. **Browse skills**: Run `Read ../api/INDEX.md` for full category overview
3. **Load specific skills**: Use bash commands above to load individual skills
4. **Follow workflows**: Use recommended sequences for common API patterns
5. **Combine skills**: Load multiple skills for comprehensive coverage

## Progressive Loading

This gateway skill (~200 lines, ~2K tokens) enables progressive loading:
- **Level 1**: Gateway loads automatically (you're here now)
- **Level 2**: Load category INDEX.md (~3K tokens) for full overview
- **Level 3**: Load specific skills (~2-3K tokens each) as needed

Total context: 2K + 3K + skill(s) = 5-10K tokens vs 25K+ for entire index.

## Quick Start Examples

**"Design a REST API for a blog"**:
Read ../api/rest-api-design.md


**"Add OAuth authentication to my API"**:
Read ../api/api-authentication.md


**"Implement role-based access control"**:
Read ../api/api-authorization.md


**"Prevent API abuse"**:
Read ../api/api-rate-limiting.md


**"Design an API versioning strategy"**:
Read ../api/api-versioning.md



**Next Steps**: Run `Read ../api/INDEX.md` to see full category details, or load specific skills using the bash commands above.