---
name: discover-api
description: Automatically discover API design skills when working with REST APIs, GraphQL schemas, API authentication, OAuth, JWT, rate limiting, API versioning, error handling, or endpoint design. Activates for backend API development tasks.
---

# 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:

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

### Load Full Category Details

For complete descriptions and workflows:

```bash
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:

```bash
# 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

```bash
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

```bash
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

```bash
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**:

```bash
# 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

1. **Auto-activation**: This skill loads automatically when Claude Code detects API-related work
2. **Browse skills**: Run `cat ~/.claude/skills/api/INDEX.md` for full category overview
3. **Load specific skills**: Use bash commands above to load individual skills
4. **Follow workflows**: Use recommended sequences for common API patterns
5. **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"**:
```bash
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/rest-api-design.md
```

**"Add OAuth authentication to my API"**:
```bash
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authentication.md
```

**"Implement role-based access control"**:
```bash
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-authorization.md
```

**"Prevent API abuse"**:
```bash
cat ~/.claude/skills/api/api-rate-limiting.md
```

**"Design an API versioning strategy"**:
```bash
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.