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Agent Skill

API Design Principles skill

api-design-principleswshobson/agentsplugins/backend-development/skills/api-design-principles/SKILL.md

Master REST and GraphQL API design principles to build intuitive, scalable, and maintainable APIs that delight developers. Use when designing new APIs, reviewing API specifications, or establishing API design standards.

42kMIT

always on

44 tokname + description

once used

762 tokSKILL.md body

bundled files

51 scripts

repo stars

42kGitHub

Install the API Design Principles skill

Skills CLI (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others)

npx skills add https://github.com/wshobson/agents --skill api-design-principles

Claude Code, by hand (all projects)

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wshobson/agents.git /tmp/agents
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R /tmp/agents/plugins/backend-development/skills/api-design-principles ~/.claude/skills/api-design-principles

For one project only, copy the folder into .claude/skills/ in that project instead. The agent picks it up when a task matches its description.

What it costs your context

Agent Skills load in three steps. Tokens counted with the o200k tokenizer; your model's count will differ a little.

WhenWhat loadsCost
Every sessionName and description44 tok
When the agent uses itThe SKILL.md instructions762 tok
Only if opened5 bundled files (35 KB)varies

Until it is used, api-design-principles costs about 31× less than the median MCP server we measured (1,362 tokens on every turn). Installing all 150 skills from wshobson/agents would load 7,688 tokens of descriptions. Skills vs MCP study

Checks

  • Ships scripts the agent can run. Read them before installing.

Checked 2026-10-22 · method

What's inside

The headings of its SKILL.md. Read the full file on GitHub.

  • API Design Principles
  • When to Use This Skill
  • Core Concepts
  • 1. RESTful Design Principles
  • 2. GraphQL Design Principles
  • 3. API Versioning Strategies
  • Detailed patterns and worked examples
  • Best Practices
  • REST APIs
  • GraphQL APIs
  • Common Pitfalls

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