REST API Core Knowledge

Deep Knowledge: Use mcp__documentation__fetch_docs with technology: rest-api for comprehensive documentation.

Resource Naming

Collections (plural nouns)

GET /users # List users POST /users # Create user GET /users/{id} # Get user PUT /users/{id} # Update user DELETE /users/{id} # Delete user

Nested resources

GET /users/{id}/posts # User's posts POST /users/{id}/posts # Create user's post

Avoid verbs in URLs

❌ GET /getUsers ❌ POST /createUser ✅ GET /users ✅ POST /users

HTTP Methods

Method Purpose Idempotent

GET Read resource Yes

POST Create resource No

PUT Replace resource Yes

PATCH Partial update Yes

DELETE Remove resource Yes

Status Codes

Code Meaning Use Case

200 OK Successful GET/PUT/PATCH

201 Created Successful POST

204 No Content Successful DELETE

400 Bad Request Validation error

401 Unauthorized Missing/invalid auth

403 Forbidden No permission

404 Not Found Resource doesn't exist

409 Conflict Duplicate/conflict

422 Unprocessable Semantic error

500 Server Error Internal error

Response Format

// Success { "data": { "id": 1, "name": "John" }, "meta": { "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:00:00Z" } }

// Collection { "data": [...], "meta": { "total": 100, "page": 1, "limit": 20 } }

// Error { "error": { "code": "VALIDATION_ERROR", "message": "Email is required", "details": [{ "field": "email", "message": "Required" }] } }

Query Parameters

GET /users?status=active&sort=-createdAt&page=1&limit=20 GET /users?fields=id,name,email GET /users?include=posts,profile GET /users?filter[age][gte]=18

When NOT to Use This Skill

GraphQL API design (use graphql skill)
tRPC type-safe APIs (use trpc skill)
OpenAPI specification writing (use openapi skill)
Real-time APIs requiring WebSockets or SSE
APIs requiring complex nested queries (consider GraphQL)

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern Why It's Bad Solution

Using verbs in URLs (/getUser , /createOrder ) Not RESTful, violates resource naming Use HTTP methods on nouns (GET /users , POST /orders )

Returning 200 for errors Misleading, breaks HTTP semantics Use appropriate 4xx/5xx status codes

Not versioning API Breaking changes affect all clients Use URL or header versioning (/v1/ , /v2/ )

Exposing database IDs directly Security risk, implementation leak Use UUIDs or opaque identifiers

No pagination on large collections Performance issues, timeouts Implement cursor or offset pagination

Ignoring HTTP caching headers Poor performance, unnecessary load Use ETag, Cache-Control, Last-Modified

Using GET for state-changing operations Security risk, breaks REST principles Use POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE

Inconsistent response formats Client confusion, integration issues Standardize on JSON envelope format

Missing rate limiting API abuse, resource exhaustion Implement rate limiting with 429 responses

Quick Troubleshooting

Issue Possible Cause Solution

401 Unauthorized Missing or invalid auth token Check Authorization header, verify token

403 Forbidden Valid auth but insufficient permissions Check user roles, verify access control

404 Not Found Resource doesn't exist or wrong path Verify endpoint URL, check resource ID

409 Conflict Resource already exists or state conflict Check uniqueness constraints, handle idempotency

422 Unprocessable Entity Validation failed Check request body, validate against schema

429 Too Many Requests Rate limit exceeded Implement backoff, check rate limit headers

500 Internal Server Error Server-side bug or crash Check server logs, add error handling

CORS errors Missing CORS headers Configure CORS middleware with allowed origins

Slow API responses No pagination, N+1 queries Add pagination, optimize database queries

Production Readiness

Security Configuration

// Input validation and sanitization import { z } from 'zod';

const CreateUserSchema = z.object({ name: z.string().min(1).max(100).trim(), email: z.string().email().toLowerCase(), age: z.number().int().min(0).max(150).optional(), });

// Validate request body app.post('/users', async (req, res) => { const result = CreateUserSchema.safeParse(req.body); if (!result.success) { return res.status(400).json({ error: { code: 'VALIDATION_ERROR', details: result.error.issues }, }); } // Use result.data (validated and transformed) });

// SQL injection prevention - always use parameterized queries // NEVER: SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = '${userId}' // GOOD: Use ORM or prepared statements

Rate Limiting

import rateLimit from 'express-rate-limit';

// Different limits for different endpoints const standardLimiter = rateLimit({ windowMs: 15 * 60 * 1000, // 15 minutes max: 100, standardHeaders: true, message: { error: { code: 'RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED' } }, });

const authLimiter = rateLimit({ windowMs: 60 * 60 * 1000, // 1 hour max: 5, // Strict for auth endpoints skipSuccessfulRequests: true, });

app.use('/api', standardLimiter); app.use('/api/auth/login', authLimiter);

API Versioning

// URL versioning (recommended for breaking changes) app.use('/api/v1', v1Router); app.use('/api/v2', v2Router);

// Header versioning (for minor versions) app.use('/api', (req, res, next) => { const version = req.headers['api-version'] || '1.0'; req.apiVersion = version; next(); });

// Sunset header for deprecated endpoints app.get('/api/v1/legacy', (req, res) => { res.set('Sunset', 'Sat, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT'); res.set('Deprecation', 'true'); // ... handle request });

Pagination

// Cursor-based pagination (recommended for large datasets) interface PaginatedResponse<T> { data: T[]; meta: { nextCursor: string | null; hasMore: boolean; }; }

app.get('/users', async (req, res) => { const cursor = req.query.cursor as string | undefined; const limit = Math.min(parseInt(req.query.limit as string) || 20, 100);

const users = await db.users.findMany({ take: limit + 1, // Fetch one extra to check if there's more cursor: cursor ? { id: cursor } : undefined, orderBy: { createdAt: 'desc' }, });

const hasMore = users.length > limit; const data = hasMore ? users.slice(0, -1) : users;

res.json({ data, meta: { nextCursor: hasMore ? data[data.length - 1].id : null, hasMore, }, }); });

Error Handling

// Consistent error response format interface APIError { error: { code: string; message: string; details?: unknown; requestId?: string; }; }

// Global error handler app.use((err: Error, req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) => { const requestId = req.headers['x-request-id'] as string;

// Log error with context logger.error({ err, requestId, path: req.path, method: req.method, });

// Don't leak internal errors const statusCode = err instanceof HTTPError ? err.statusCode : 500; const message = statusCode === 500 ? 'Internal Server Error' : err.message;

res.status(statusCode).json({ error: { code: err.code || 'INTERNAL_ERROR', message, requestId, }, }); });

Monitoring Metrics

Metric Alert Threshold

Request latency p99

500ms

Error rate (4xx)

5%

Error rate (5xx)

1%

Rate limit hits

100/min

Request size

10MB

CORS Configuration

import cors from 'cors';

app.use(cors(corsOptions));

Request/Response Logging

import pino from 'pino-http';

app.use(pino({ redact: ['req.headers.authorization', 'req.body.password'], serializers: { req: (req) => ({ method: req.method, url: req.url, query: req.query, }), res: (res) => ({ statusCode: res.statusCode, }), }, }));

Checklist

Input validation on all endpoints
Rate limiting configured
CORS properly restricted
API versioning strategy
Cursor-based pagination
Consistent error format
Request ID tracking
Structured logging
No sensitive data in URLs
Body size limits configured
Timeout handling
Health check endpoint

Reference Documentation

Pagination
Versioning

rest-api

Safety Notice

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Collections (plural nouns)

Nested resources

Avoid verbs in URLs

Source Transparency

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