API Design Principles

API Design Principles is an AI Engineering skill for Claude Code, published by secondsky in claude-skills.

214 stars31 forkson secondsky/claude-skillsAdded 2026/09/04+1% in starsRepository updated 2026/09/03

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Install in seconds

Install API Design Principles

Copy API Design Principles into your Claude Code skills folder. Run the command in your terminal, or review the source on GitHub before installing.

terminal

npx degit https://github.com/secondsky/claude-skills/tree/main/plugins/api-design-principles/skills/api-design-principles ~/.claude/skills/api-design-principles

Requires Node.js. Downloads this skill only — not the rest of the repository — into your Claude Code skills folder.

Without Node.js

git clone https://github.com/secondsky/claude-skills.git

Clones the whole repository, then copy the skill’s own directory into your skills folder yourself.

In this catalog

Source file: plugins/api-design-principles/skills/api-design-principles/SKILL.md in secondsky/claude-skills
Installs to: ~/.claude/skills/api-design-principles
Collection: One of 24 skills cataloged from this repository
Category: AI Engineering — 2970 skills

What API Design Principles does

API Design Principles helps you design REST and GraphQL APIs with clear resource models, versioning, pagination, and error handling. Use it when creating APIs, reviewing specifications, or setting API standards.

API Design Principles is cataloged under AI Engineering on DirSkills. API Design Principles comes from a repository tagged claude-code, claude-code-commands, claude-code-hooks, claude-code-plugin and claude-code-plugins.

Documentation

README

Excerpt

API Design Principles

Master REST and GraphQL API design principles to build intuitive, scalable, and maintainable APIs that delight developers and stand the test of time.

When to Use This Skill

Designing new REST or GraphQL APIs
Refactoring existing APIs for better usability
Establishing API design standards for your team
Reviewing API specifications before implementation
Migrating between API paradigms (REST to GraphQL, etc.)
Creating developer-friendly API documentation
Optimizing APIs for specific use cases (mobile, third-party integrations)

Core Concepts

1. RESTful Design Principles

This is the opening of the README. Read the full README on GitHub.

Frequently asked about API Design Principles

What else does secondsky publish alongside API Design Principles?
API Design Principles is one of 24 skills that DirSkills catalogs from secondsky/claude-skills, the repository it ships in. Its siblings there include API Authentication, API Changelog & Versioning and API Contract Testing. Each one is a separate skill with its own page in this directory, installs the same way API Design Principles does, and is maintained by secondsky in that same repository. The rest of the collection is listed on the secondsky/claude-skills page.
How does API Design Principles compare to other AI Engineering skills?
API Design Principles ranks #2652 by stars among the 2970 AI Engineering skills in this catalog. The most-starred ones next to it are Architecture Decision Records, AI-First Engineering and Agentic OS. DirSkills ranks by the star count of the repository each skill ships in, so that order reflects how popular those repositories are rather than any review of API Design Principles against them. Open each page to compare what they document and how they install.