API Development

What it does

This skill provides a concise, production-ready checklist and guidance for implementing REST APIs with correct status codes, RFC 7807-compliant error payloads, input validation and sanitization, rate limiting, request correlation IDs, and centralized error handling. It includes example code and middleware patterns to standardize API behavior.

When to use it

Apply this skill when creating or reviewing API routes, building server-side handlers, adding validation and error handling, or hardening endpoints against abuse. Useful during code reviews, API design, and production readiness checks.

What's included

• Scripts: none in the repo for this skill, but rich examples and code snippets are embedded in the SKILL.md body
• References: none listed, but links to RFC 7807 and relevant docs are provided
• Instructions: practical examples for status code selection, RFC 7807 Problem Details structures, centralized error handler middleware, Zod schema validation patterns, sanitization, and rate limiting setup

Compatible agents

Applicable to Claude-based authors and developer-assistant agents (Claude Opus / Claude Code) and any agent that helps produce server-side code or audits API implementations.