API Design Expert

English | Bahasa Indonesia

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<a name="english"></a>

English

Description

Expert guide for designing, documenting, and evolving production-grade APIs. Covers REST resource modeling and HTTP semantics, GraphQL schema design, gRPC with protobuf, and tRPC for end-to-end type-safe APIs in TypeScript monorepos. Includes OpenAPI 3.1 documentation, API versioning strategies, rate limiting, idempotency, and contract-first development workflows.

Trigger Conditions

• Designing a new API from scratch (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, or tRPC).
• Evolving an existing API without breaking clients.
• Documenting APIs with OpenAPI/Swagger.
• Implementing rate limiting, throttling, or idempotency.
• Choosing between REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and tRPC.
• Designing webhook systems.
• Implementing API authentication (API keys, JWT, OAuth2).

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API Protocol Selection Guide

Criteria	REST	GraphQL	gRPC	tRPC
Type Safety	Manual (OpenAPI)	Schema-enforced	Protobuf	End-to-end TS
Performance	Good	Good	Excellent (HTTP/2)	Good
Browser Support	Native	Native	Needs proxy	TS/JS only
Streaming	SSE / WebSocket	Subscriptions	Native bi-directional	SSE
Best For	Public APIs, mobile	Complex data graphs	Microservice-to-service	Next.js full-stack
Tooling	Universal	Rich ecosystem	Strong (Go, Java)	Next.js / Expo

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REST API Design Principles

Resource Naming Conventions

Collection:  GET    /api/v1/posts
Item:        GET    /api/v1/posts/{id}
Sub-resource:GET    /api/v1/posts/{id}/comments
Action:      POST   /api/v1/posts/{id}/publish   (use sparingly)

AVOID: /api/v1/getPosts, /api/v1/createPost, /api/v1/deletePost/{id}

HTTP Method Semantics

Method	Idempotent	Safe	Use Case
GET	Yes	Yes	Retrieve resources
POST	No	No	Create resources, trigger actions
PUT	Yes	No	Replace entire resource
PATCH	No	No	Partial update
DELETE	Yes	No	Remove resource

Consistent Response Structure

// Success response
{
  "data": { "id": "usr_01", "email": "user@example.com" },
  "meta": { "requestId": "req_xyz", "timestamp": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z" }
}

// Paginated list response
{
  "data": [...],
  "meta": {
    "total": 1234,
    "page": 2,
    "pageSize": 20,
    "hasNextPage": true,
    "nextCursor": "eyJpZCI6"
  }
}

// Error response (RFC 9457 Problem Details)
{
  "type": "https://api.example.com/errors/validation-failed",
  "title": "Validation Failed",
  "status": 422,
  "detail": "The 'email' field must be a valid email address.",
  "instance": "/api/v1/users",
  "errors": [
    { "field": "email", "message": "Invalid email format" }
  ]
}

HTTP Status Codes — Correct Usage

200 OK          — Successful GET, PUT, PATCH
201 Created     — Successful POST (include Location header)
204 No Content  — Successful DELETE
400 Bad Request — Invalid request body or params
401 Unauthorized— Missing or invalid authentication
403 Forbidden   — Authenticated but not authorized
404 Not Found   — Resource not found
409 Conflict    — Duplicate key, version conflict
422 Unprocessable Entity — Validation failure
429 Too Many Requests    — Rate limit exceeded (include Retry-After)
500 Internal Server Error— Unexpected server error

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API Versioning Strategies

Strategy 1 — URL Path (Recommended for public APIs):
  GET /api/v1/users
  GET /api/v2/users

Strategy 2 — Header:
  GET /api/users
  Accept: application/vnd.example.v2+json

Strategy 3 — Query Parameter (Avoid in production):
  GET /api/users?version=2

Rules for non-breaking changes (no version bump needed):

• Adding new optional fields to responses.
• Adding new optional request parameters.
• Adding new endpoints.

Breaking changes (require new version):

• Removing or renaming fields.
• Changing field types.
• Changing error response structure.

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tRPC — End-to-End Type Safety

// server/router.ts
import { initTRPC, TRPCError } from '@trpc/server';
import { z } from 'zod';

const t = initTRPC.context<Context>().create();
export const router = t.router;
export const publicProcedure = t.procedure;
export const protectedProcedure = t.procedure.use(({ ctx, next }) => {
  if (!ctx.session?.user) throw new TRPCError({ code: 'UNAUTHORIZED' });
  return next({ ctx: { ...ctx, user: ctx.session.user } });
});

export const appRouter = router({
  users: router({
    list: publicProcedure
      .input(z.object({ page: z.number().int().min(1).default(1) }))
      .query(async ({ input, ctx }) => {
        return ctx.db.user.findMany({ skip: (input.page - 1) * 20, take: 20 });
      }),
    create: protectedProcedure
      .input(z.object({ email: z.string().email(), name: z.string().min(2) }))
      .mutation(async ({ input, ctx }) => {
        return ctx.db.user.create({ data: input });
      }),
  }),
});

export type AppRouter = typeof appRouter;
// Client automatically infers all types — no code generation needed

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Rate Limiting Implementation

// Sliding window rate limit with Redis (using Upstash)
import { Ratelimit } from '@upstash/ratelimit';
import { Redis } from '@upstash/redis';

const ratelimit = new Ratelimit({
  redis: Redis.fromEnv(),
  limiter: Ratelimit.slidingWindow(100, '1 m'), // 100 requests/minute
  analytics: true,
  prefix: 'api:ratelimit',
});

// Next.js middleware usage
export async function rateLimitMiddleware(req: Request) {
  const ip = req.headers.get('x-forwarded-for') ?? '127.0.0.1';
  const { success, limit, remaining, reset } = await ratelimit.limit(ip);

  if (!success) {
    return new Response(JSON.stringify({ error: 'Too Many Requests' }), {
      status: 429,
      headers: {
        'X-RateLimit-Limit': limit.toString(),
        'X-RateLimit-Remaining': remaining.toString(),
        'X-RateLimit-Reset': new Date(reset).toISOString(),
        'Retry-After': Math.ceil((reset - Date.now()) / 1000).toString(),
      },
    });
  }
}

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Idempotency for Mutations

// Client sends Idempotency-Key header for safe retries
// POST /api/payments
// Idempotency-Key: a0e4b2c1-unique-uuid-here

async function handlePayment(req: Request) {
  const idempotencyKey = req.headers.get('idempotency-key');
  if (!idempotencyKey) return errorResponse(400, 'Idempotency-Key header required');

  // Check cache first
  const cached = await redis.get(`idempotency:${idempotencyKey}`);
  if (cached) return Response.json(JSON.parse(cached), { status: 200 });

  // Process payment
  const result = await processPayment(await req.json());

  // Cache result for 24 hours
  await redis.setex(`idempotency:${idempotencyKey}`, 86400, JSON.stringify(result));
  return Response.json(result, { status: 201 });
}

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OpenAPI 3.1 Documentation

# openapi.yaml
openapi: "3.1.0"
info:
  title: Example API
  version: "1.0.0"
  description: "RESTful API for Example SaaS"

paths:
  /api/v1/users:
    get:
      operationId: listUsers
      summary: List all users
      tags: [Users]
      security: [{ bearerAuth: [] }]
      parameters:
        - name: page
          in: query
          schema: { type: integer, minimum: 1, default: 1 }
        - name: pageSize
          in: query
          schema: { type: integer, minimum: 1, maximum: 100, default: 20 }
      responses:
        "200":
          description: Users list
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: "#/components/schemas/UserListResponse"
        "401":
          $ref: "#/components/responses/Unauthorized"

components:
  securitySchemes:
    bearerAuth:
      type: http
      scheme: bearer
      bearerFormat: JWT

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<a name="bahasa-indonesia"></a>

Bahasa Indonesia

Integrasi Orkestrasi

Terhubung dan mengorkestrasi skill domain yang relevan seperti brainstorming, zero-to-prod-orchestrator, dan session-memory-manager untuk memastikan eksekusi yang kohesif.

Deskripsi

Panduan ahli untuk merancang, mendokumentasikan, dan mengembangkan API berkualitas produksi. Mencakup pemodelan resource REST dan semantik HTTP, desain skema GraphQL, gRPC dengan protobuf, dan tRPC untuk API end-to-end type-safe di TypeScript. Termasuk dokumentasi OpenAPI 3.1, strategi versioning API, rate limiting, idempotency, dan alur kerja contract-first.

Kondisi Pemicu

• Merancang API baru dari nol (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, atau tRPC).
• Mengembangkan API yang ada tanpa merusak klien.
• Mendokumentasikan API dengan OpenAPI/Swagger.
• Mengimplementasikan rate limiting, throttling, atau idempotency.
• Memilih antara REST, GraphQL, gRPC, dan tRPC.
• Merancang sistem webhook.

Panduan Pemilihan Protokol API

• REST: API publik, klien mobile, konsumsi universal.
• GraphQL: Data graph kompleks, kebutuhan query fleksibel dari klien.
• gRPC: Komunikasi layanan-ke-layanan dengan performa tinggi.
• tRPC: Proyek full-stack TypeScript monorepo (Next.js + backend).

Prinsip REST

1. Penamaan resource: Gunakan kata benda jamak (/posts, bukan /getPost).
2. Status HTTP: Gunakan kode yang tepat (201 untuk create, 204 untuk delete).
3. Konsistensi respons: Selalu kembalikan struktur data + meta yang konsisten.
4. Versioning: Gunakan URL path (/api/v1/) untuk API publik.
5. Idempotency: Implementasikan Idempotency-Key header untuk operasi mutasi yang kritis.
6. Rate Limiting: Selalu sertakan header X-RateLimit-* dan kode 429 yang benar.

Orchestration & Integration

• Connects to other backend skills as part of the orchestration flow.