api-contract-author

API Contract Author

When to use

You are the BE Dev. Your task introduces or modifies an endpoint that an FE task depends on. CLAUDE.md §10 hard rule: no FE Dev start on a backend-dependent task until the API contract is Frozen. This skill defines the contract format, the freeze discipline, and the versioning policy.

Inputs and outputs

• Inputs: the SRS requirement(s) the endpoint serves, the architecture decisions that constrain it (auth, observability, error model)
• Outputs: a contract file under docs/api-contracts/ with Status: Frozen, ready for FE to consume

Format — read from SRS §3.4.4, never decide per task

The kit's format choice is project-wide, declared in docs/SRS.md §3.4.4 API Contract Format. As BE Dev, you do NOT pick the format per task — you read SRS §3.4.4 and use the declared format for the API style your endpoint serves. Mixing formats across endpoints in the same project (e.g., one users.openapi.yaml + one orders.md) is a contract-discipline violation; each API style has a single declared format.

Default formats per API style (from SRS §3.4.4):

API style	Default format	Acceptable file extensions
REST (sync HTTP)	openapi-3.1	.yaml, .yml, .json (with openapi-3.1 tag in info.openapi field)
gRPC	proto3	.proto
GraphQL	graphql-sdl	.graphql, .gql
Async messaging	asyncapi-2.x	.yaml, .yml, .json (with asyncapi field)
Legacy / prototype only	markdown	.md — requires ADR justification per SRS §3.4.4

If SRS §3.4.4 declares openapi-3.1 for REST and you're tempted to write endpoint.md because "it's just a prototype," halt and either (a) update the SRS §3.4.4 declaration with an ADR justifying the markdown deviation OR (b) write the contract in the declared OpenAPI format. Don't silently drift.

If SRS §3.4.4 is missing but your task requires an API contract: halt and signal back to the Orchestrator. BA's Phase 1 should have captured the format declaration during ingestion; a missing §3.4.4 indicates an SRS gap that BA must close before BE Dev can proceed. Don't pick a format yourself.

Naming and Status

docs/api-contracts/
├── users.openapi.yaml                   # service-level OpenAPI spec
├── orders.openapi.yaml
├── payments.proto                       # gRPC IDL
└── search-suggest.md                    # Markdown contract for one endpoint

Every contract file starts with a header (Markdown, or info/description block for OpenAPI):

Status: Draft | Frozen | Deprecated
Last-Updated: <ISO-8601>
Frozen-By: <agent or person>
Frozen-At: <ISO-8601>

Frozen is the only status FE Dev may consume from. Draft means the BE is still iterating; Deprecated means there's a successor and consumers should migrate.

Required content per endpoint

Whatever format you choose, every endpoint must specify all of:

1. Path and method (and protocol if not REST)
2. Auth requirement — required scopes / roles, or "public" with explicit rationale
3. Request shape — fully typed: every field's type, required-or-optional, constraints (length, format, enum)
4. Response shape — same level of detail; per status code (200 / 201 / 400 / 401 / 403 / 404 / 409 / 422 / 500)
5. Error model — the error body shape (code, message, details). Standardize per service, not per endpoint.
6. Idempotency — for write methods (POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE), whether the endpoint is idempotent and how clients signal it (Idempotency-Key header, deterministic resource ID, etc.)
7. Rate limit — per-user and global
8. Pagination — for list endpoints, the cursor / page model and the response envelope
9. Examples — at least one happy-path request + response, and one error response per non-200 status the endpoint can return

See references/example.md for a worked Markdown contract.

Procedure to publish

1. Draft the contract while you implement; don't wait until the implementation is "done."
2. Status starts at Draft. Iterate freely; FE is not consuming yet.
3. Validate the contract against your real implementation: every status code in the contract is one your code can return; every field shape matches what the code emits.
4. Run the contract through the agreed-upon lint / validator (Spectral for OpenAPI, buf for Proto, none for Markdown — but a peer reviewer reads it).
5. Set Status: Frozen, Frozen-At, Frozen-By. Notify the orchestrator (via your plan-update.json).
6. From this moment, treat the contract as immutable for this task. Any change goes through the freeze-break flow below.

Versioning policy

• Add-only changes (new optional field, new endpoint, new optional query param) — bump minor version, no break.
• Breaking changes (removed field, changed type, renamed enum value, stricter validation) — bump major version, publish a new contract file alongside the old, mark old as Deprecated with a migration deadline.
• Never modify a Frozen contract in place to "fix" something. Freeze means freeze. If you must change it, follow the freeze-break flow.

Freeze-break flow (CLAUDE.md §7)

When you discover after freezing that the contract must change:

1. Stop. Do not edit the frozen contract in place.
2. Raise a blocking issue in docs/open-issues.md per CLAUDE.md §6 with state open.
3. The Orchestrator halts dependent FE tasks (per CLAUDE.md §7).
4. You produce a new revision: bump the version, publish as a new file, mark the old Deprecated.
5. Re-freeze the new revision. Open issue moves to resolved. FE tasks resume against the new contract.

Hard rules

• A contract without Status: Frozen is not a contract — FE cannot consume it.
• Once Frozen, no edits in place. Period.
• Every status code your endpoint can emit is in the contract. Codes that are in the code but not the contract are bugs (one of them is wrong).
• Errors return a standard error body shape across the service. Per-endpoint snowflake error shapes are a refactor target, not a contract feature.
• Frozen requires a real reviewer (peer BE or SA, not yourself).

References

• references/example.md — worked Markdown contract
• CLAUDE.md §3.5 — BE Dev role and contract publishing
• CLAUDE.md §10 — hard rules (FE blocked on Frozen contract)
• .claude/rules/change-synchronization.md §7 — freeze-break flow
• .claude/rules/parallel-execution.md §4 — BE/FE parallel start gated on contract freeze