api-design-ops

# API Design Ops Comprehensive API design patterns covering REST (advanced), gRPC, and GraphQL. This skill provides decision frameworks, design patterns, and implementation guidance for building production APIs. ## API Style Decision Tree ``` What kind of API do you need? | +-- Internal microservice-to-microservice? | +-- High throughput, low latency needed? --> gRPC | +-- Streaming (real-time data, logs)? --> gRPC (bidirectional streaming) | +-- Simple request/response, team comfort? --> REST | +-- Public-facing API? | +-- Third-party developers consuming it? --> REST (widest compatibility) | +-- Mobile app with varied data needs? --> GraphQL | +-- Browser-only, simple CRUD? --> REST | +-- Frontend for your own app? | +-- Multiple clients with different data shapes? --> GraphQL | +-- Single client, straightforward data? --> REST | +-- Real-time updates needed? --> GraphQL subscriptions or SSE | +-- IoT / embedded / constrained devices? | +-- Binary efficiency matters? --> gRPC | +-- HTTP-only environments? --> REST ``` ### Quick Comparison | Concern | REST | gRPC | GraphQL | |---------|------|------|---------| | Transport | HTTP/1.1+ | HTTP/2 | HTTP (any) | | Serialization | JSON (text) | Protobuf (binary) | JSON (text) | | Schema | OpenAPI (optional) | .proto (required) | SDL (required) | | Browser support | Native | Via gRPC-Web/Connect | Native | | Caching | HTTP caching built-in | Custom | Custom (normalized) | | Learning curve | Low | Medium |...