rest-api-design

REST API Design

Designing HTTP APIs following REST principles: resources (nouns), methods (verbs), semantic status codes, and hypermedia.

Context

You are designing or reviewing a REST API. Your role is to:

• Identify resources in the domain
• Map CRUD operations to HTTP methods semantically
• Use status codes correctly (not 200 for errors)
• Design URLs as resources, not RPC endpoints
• Consider idempotency and caching implications

REST is architectural style, not HTTP CRUD framework. Treat it with discipline.

Domain Context

Based on Roy Fielding's dissertation and REST maturity model (Richardson Level 0-3):

• Resources: Nouns (users, orders, products). Identified by URLs.
• HTTP Methods: GET (read), POST (create), PUT (replace all), PATCH (partial), DELETE (remove)
• Status Codes: 1xx (info), 2xx (success), 3xx (redirect), 4xx (client error), 5xx (server error)
• Idempotency: GET, PUT, DELETE are idempotent. POST is not.
• Hypermedia: Links in responses guide clients to related resources
• Statelessness: Each request contains all context needed; no session state on server

When to Use This Skill

• Designing a new public API
• Auditing existing API for REST compliance
• Deciding between REST, gRPC, or GraphQL
• Designing complex resource hierarchies
• Handling pagination, filtering, or versioning

Prerequisites

• Understand domain entities and relationships
• Know HTTP methods and status codes (or willing to learn)
• Have clear acceptance criteria for API behavior
• Can write test requests (curl, Postman, HTTP client)

Instructions (Detailed)

1. Identify Resources

Ask: "What are the nouns in this domain?"

Example (E-commerce API):

• Resource: User, Product, Order, Cart, Review, Inventory

For each resource, define:

• Identity: What uniquely identifies it? (id, email, SKU)
• Relationships: How does it relate to others? (User → many Orders)
• Operations: What actions apply? (CRUD + domain actions)

2. Design Resource Paths

/resource              - collection of resource
/resource/{id}        - individual resource
/resource/{id}/sub    - sub-resource (collection)
/resource/{id}/sub/{id} - individual sub-resource

Good paths:

GET  /users              - list all users
POST /users              - create user
GET  /users/123          - get user 123
PUT  /users/123          - replace user 123
PATCH /users/123         - partially update user 123
DELETE /users/123        - delete user 123

GET  /users/123/orders   - get user 123's orders
POST /users/123/orders   - create order for user 123

Bad paths (RPC-style, avoid):

GET  /getUser?id=123
GET  /user/create
POST /user?action=update
GET  /deleteUser?id=123

3. Map HTTP Methods Semantically

• GET: Retrieve without side effects. Safe and idempotent.
• POST: Create new resource. Not idempotent (multiple POSTs = multiple resources).
• PUT: Replace entire resource. Idempotent (same PUT twice = same result).
• PATCH: Partial update. May or may not be idempotent (depends on implementation).
• DELETE: Remove resource. Idempotent (delete twice = idempotent; second delete returns 404).

Example:

POST /orders           - create NEW order → 201 Created
PUT /orders/123        - REPLACE entire order (all fields) → 200 OK
PATCH /orders/123      - UPDATE some fields → 200 OK
GET /orders/123        - RETRIEVE order → 200 OK
DELETE /orders/123     - REMOVE order → 204 No Content (or 200)

4. Use Status Codes Correctly

Success:

• 200 OK - Request succeeded, response includes result
• 201 Created - Resource created; response includes resource and Location header
• 202 Accepted - Request accepted for processing (async operations)
• 204 No Content - Success but no response body (DELETE often returns this)

Redirection:

• 301 Moved Permanently - Resource moved to new URL
• 303 See Other - Result is at a different URL (use for POST redirect)
• 304 Not Modified - Resource unchanged since client's If-Modified-Since

Client Error:

• 400 Bad Request - Malformed request (missing field, invalid JSON)
• 401 Unauthorized - Missing authentication
• 403 Forbidden - Authenticated but no permission
• 404 Not Found - Resource doesn't exist
• 409 Conflict - Request conflicts with current state (e.g., duplicate email)
• 422 Unprocessable Entity - Well-formed but semantically invalid (e.g., invalid email format)

Server Error:

• 500 Internal Server Error - Server bug, not client's fault
• 503 Service Unavailable - Server overloaded or down

5. Handle Errors Consistently

Define a standard error response:

{
  "error": {
    "code": "INVALID_EMAIL",
    "message": "Email address is invalid",
    "details": {
      "field": "email",
      "value": "not-an-email"
    }
  }
}

Use same error structure for ALL endpoints. Clients can parse errors consistently.

6. Design for Idempotency

Idempotent operations (safe to retry):

• GET, HEAD, OPTIONS - read-only
• PUT - replacing resource (same result each time)
• DELETE - removing resource (idempotent; second delete returns 404)

Non-idempotent operations (retrying causes problems):

• POST - creates new resource; each retry creates duplicate

For non-idempotent operations, require client to provide idempotency key:

POST /orders
Idempotency-Key: "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"
Content-Type: application/json
{ "items": [...], "payment": "credit_card" }

Server stores key → response mapping. If client retries with same key, return cached response (no duplicate order).

7. Include Hypermedia Links

Self-describing API: responses include links to related resources.

{
  "id": 123,
  "name": "John",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "_links": {
    "self": { "href": "/users/123" },
    "all_users": { "href": "/users" },
    "orders": { "href": "/users/123/orders" }
  }
}

Benefits: Clients can discover endpoints without hardcoding URLs.

8. Handle Pagination

For large collections, paginate:

GET /users?page=2&limit=20
GET /users?offset=40&limit=20
GET /users?cursor=abc123&limit=20  (cursor-based, better for distributed systems)

Response includes pagination metadata:

{
  "data": [...],
  "pagination": {
    "page": 2,
    "limit": 20,
    "total": 500,
    "next": "/users?page=3&limit=20"
  }
}

9. Document with Examples

Every endpoint needs documentation showing:

• Request method and path
• Request body example
• Response body example (success and common errors)
• Status codes returned

Output Format

When designing an API, deliver:

1. Resource List: What resources does the API expose?
2. Endpoint Matrix: Methods × resources
3. Request/Response Examples: Concrete JSON examples
4. Error Handling: Standard error format
5. Idempotency Strategy: How to handle retries
6. Pagination Strategy: How to handle large collections

Worked Example: E-Commerce Order API

Domain: Create, update, retrieve orders.

Resources: User, Order, OrderItem, Product

Endpoints:

Users
GET    /users              - list users
POST   /users              - create user
GET    /users/{id}         - get user
PUT    /users/{id}         - replace user
DELETE /users/{id}         - delete user

Orders
GET    /orders             - list orders (paginated)
POST   /orders             - create order
GET    /orders/{id}        - get order
PUT    /orders/{id}        - replace order
DELETE /orders/{id}        - cancel order

Order Items (sub-resource)
GET    /orders/{id}/items  - get order items
POST   /orders/{id}/items  - add item to order

Request Examples:

POST /orders HTTP/1.1
Idempotency-Key: "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "user_id": 123,
  "items": [
    {"product_id": 456, "quantity": 2},
    {"product_id": 789, "quantity": 1}
  ],
  "shipping_address": {
    "street": "123 Main St",
    "city": "Springfield",
    "zip": "12345"
  }
}

Response (201 Created):

{
  "id": 999,
  "user_id": 123,
  "status": "pending",
  "created_at": "2026-03-11T14:30:00Z",
  "items": [...],
  "_links": {
    "self": { "href": "/orders/999" },
    "cancel": { "href": "/orders/999", "method": "DELETE" },
    "user": { "href": "/users/123" }
  }
}

Decision Framework

• REST vs GraphQL?: REST for simple CRUD APIs; GraphQL for complex queries
• Versioning?: Use URL path (/v1/) or header (Accept: application/vnd.api+json;version=1)
• Nested resources?: Keep nesting <3 levels; use query params otherwise
• Bulk operations?: POST to collection with array of items
• Async operations?: Return 202 Accepted + Location header with status endpoint

Anti-Patterns

• Using only GET and POST (ignores PUT, DELETE, PATCH)
• Returning 200 for errors (breaks HTTP semantics; use 4xx)
• RPC-style URLs (/getUser instead of GET /users/{id})
• No error standardization (each endpoint has different error format)
• Ignoring idempotency (clients can't safely retry)
• Breaking changes without versioning (consumers break)

Quality Checklist

• All resources identified and mapped to nouns
• HTTP methods match CRUD/domain actions
• Status codes are semantically correct
• Error format is standardized across all endpoints
• Idempotency strategy defined for POST/async operations
• Pagination implemented for large collections
• Hypermedia links included where sensible
• All endpoints documented with request/response examples
• Edge cases handled (invalid input, resource not found, etc.)
• API is versioned or designed for backward compatibility

Further Reading

• Roy Fielding, Representational State Transfer (dissertation, 2000)
• Martin Fowler, Richardson Maturity Model (blog post)
• Microsoft Azure REST API Guidelines
• Google API Design Guide
• RFC 7231 (HTTP/1.1 Semantics and Content)
• RFC 7232 (HTTP/1.1 Conditional Requests)