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API Design & Documentation Checklist

Hard 15 items · 2 hours
testuser's avatar
testuser Published 2 weeks ago
Technical

This checklist helps teams and engineers design clear, consistent, and secure HTTP APIs and produce usable OpenAPI/Swagger documentation. It’s aimed at backend developers, API architects, and technical writers preparing production-ready APIs.

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  1. Define API goals and usage scenarios — List primary consumers, use cases, and SLAs before modeling endpoints.
  2. Design RESTful resource names — Use nouns, plural forms, and hierarchical paths (e.g., /orders/{id}/items).
  3. Use correct HTTP methods for operations — Map CRUD to GET, POST, PUT/PATCH, DELETE and avoid tunneling actions in verbs.
  4. Standardize HTTP status codes — Return consistent 2xx/4xx/5xx codes and map business errors to specific 4xx codes.
  5. Specify request and response schemas — Define JSON schemas, required fields, types, and example payloads for each endpoint.
  6. Design consistent error response format — Include an error code, human message, optional details, and a request ID for tracing.
  7. Choose and implement authentication method — Select OAuth2, JWT, mTLS, or API keys based on security and client types.
  8. Document token flows and grant types — Describe Authorization Code, Client Credentials, refresh flows, and scopes.
  9. Secure token storage and rotation — Specify token expiry, rotation, revocation, and client storage best practices.
  10. Plan API versioning strategy — Choose URI, header, or media-type versioning and document compatibility rules.
  11. Add pagination, filtering, and sorting to list endpoints — Support limit/offset or cursor pagination, plus clear filter and sort parameters.
  12. Implement rate limiting and throttling — Define limits per user/API key, return 429, and document retry headers.
  13. Define API lifecycle and deprecation policy — Publish deprecation notices, timelines, and migration guides for breaking changes.
  14. Write OpenAPI/Swagger documentation — Produce an OpenAPI spec with paths, schemas, examples, and securitySchemes.
  15. Create automated contract and integration tests — Validate responses against schemas and run API tests in CI to prevent regressions.
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