---
title: "API Design Principles - Air Market"
description: "You are designing an interface other developers will have to use, and the choices you make now are hard to take back. This covers REST and GraphQL design principles aimed at making an API intuitive,…"
canonical: "https://airmarket.ai/app/api-design-principles"
---

[Air Market](/) / [Developer Tools](/category/devtools) / API Design Principles

Skill by [Seth Hobson](/@wshobson)

# API Design Principles

Shape an API other developers can pick up without a manual

## What this does

You are designing an interface other developers will have to use, and the choices you make now are hard to take back. This covers REST and GraphQL design principles aimed at making an API intuitive, scalable and maintainable. Reach for it before you commit a new API, or when reviewing one someone else drafted.

### Top 3 things it does for you

- Design a new REST or GraphQL API
- Review an API specification
- Set design standards for a team's APIs

## Information

**API Design Principles at a glance**

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Kind | Skill |
| Publisher | [Seth Hobson](/@wshobson) |
| Category | [Developer Tools](/category/devtools) |
| Works with | Agent Skills - an open standard supported by 40+ agents |
| Size | 38 KB |
| Licence | MIT |
| Repository | [wshobson/agents](https://github.com/wshobson/agents/tree/be57c0b2e3c05c528ca6132b87410b385718775f/plugins/backend-development/skills/api-design-principles) |
| GitHub stars | 39,077 (as of Nov 2026) |
| Installs | 31,373, counted by skills.sh (Nov 2026) |

## Security report

**Verified.** AIR scanned this exact version of API Design Principles and recorded 0 findings and 2 flagged items. AIR's verdict: **safe**.

**What API Design Principles's check was run against**

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Commit | be57c0b2e3c05c528ca6132b87410b385718775f |
| Content hash | 034ff81ea51f4bc8727642bb1378e87781d5297903d8790f7a29e3cd8df83119 |
| Files read | [Browse the files at this exact commit](https://github.com/wshobson/agents/blob/be57c0b2e3c05c528ca6132b87410b385718775f/plugins/backend-development/skills/api-design-principles/SKILL.md) |

A scan is named by the exact content it read, not by a version number. A different version is a different artifact, and nothing here applies to a version AIR has not scanned.

[Read the full security report for API Design Principles](/security/api-design-principles)

## About API Design Principles

This covers REST and GraphQL API design principles for building APIs that are intuitive, scalable and maintainable - the kind that developers enjoy working with.

Use it when designing new APIs, reviewing API specifications, or establishing design standards to hold future APIs to.

## What's inside

- SKILL.md - instructions
- assets/api-design-checklist.md - reference
- assets/rest-api-template.py - script
- references/details.md - reference
- references/graphql-schema-design.md - reference
- references/rest-best-practices.md - reference

## Questions

### Is API Design Principles safe to install?

AIR scanned this exact version of API Design Principles and recorded 0 findings and 2 flagged items. AIR's verdict: safe. The verdict is named by the content that was read, at commit be57c0b2e3c0, so it cannot drift onto a version nobody scanned. The full report is at https://airmarket.ai/security/api-design-principles.

### How do I install API Design Principles?

Open https://airmarket.ai/app/api-design-principles on Air Market and use the install action: Air Market hands Claude a prompt naming this exact skill, and Claude sets it up. Source, pinned to the exact commit this listing describes: https://github.com/wshobson/agents/tree/be57c0b2e3c05c528ca6132b87410b385718775f/plugins/backend-development/skills/api-design-principles. Install from that link, not the branch.

## Related on Air Market

- [More Developer Tools listings](/category/devtools)
- [Everything by Seth Hobson](/@wshobson)

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Canonical URL: <https://airmarket.ai/app/api-design-principles>