API Skills Discovery Skill

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 7 specialized skills:

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

Load Full Category Details

For complete descriptions and workflows:

cat ~/.claude/skills/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
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/rest-api-design.md
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/graphql-schema-design.md

# Security and access control
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authentication.md
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authorization.md

# Production hardening
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-rate-limiting.md
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-error-handling.md
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-versioning.md

Common Workflows

New REST API

Sequence: REST design → Authentication → Authorization

cat ~/.claude/skills/api/rest-api-design.md      # Resource modeling, HTTP methods
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authentication.md   # User authentication
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authorization.md    # Access control

New GraphQL API

Sequence: GraphQL schema → Authentication → Authorization

cat ~/.claude/skills/api/graphql-schema-design.md  # Schema design, resolvers
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authentication.md     # User authentication
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authorization.md      # Field-level permissions

API Hardening

Sequence: Rate limiting → Error handling → Versioning

cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-rate-limiting.md    # Prevent abuse
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-error-handling.md   # Standardized errors
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-versioning.md       # Manage evolution

Complete API Stack

Full implementation from scratch:

# 1. Design phase
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/rest-api-design.md

# 2. Security phase
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authentication.md
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authorization.md
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-rate-limiting.md

# 3. Production readiness
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-error-handling.md
cat ~/.claude/skills/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

Auto-activation: This skill loads automatically when Claude Code detects API-related work
Browse skills: Run cat ~/.claude/skills/api/INDEX.md for full category overview
Load specific skills: Use bash commands above to load individual skills
Follow workflows: Use recommended sequences for common API patterns
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":

cat ~/.claude/skills/api/rest-api-design.md

"Add OAuth authentication to my API":

cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authentication.md

"Implement role-based access control":

cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authorization.md

"Prevent API abuse":

cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-rate-limiting.md

"Design an API versioning strategy":

cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-versioning.md

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

Agent Skills: API Skills Discovery

Skill Files