api-design-principles

A schema-first approach for REST and GraphQL API design defines API contracts and types before implementation, ensuring consistent interfaces, enforceable validation, and maintainable developer documentation.

To choose between REST and GraphQL for a new service, evaluate your consumers, use cases, and constraints. REST models resources and endpoints, while GraphQL offers flexible querying and type systems.

Standardize API design by defining consistent strategies for error handling, versioning, and pagination across your REST or GraphQL endpoints, using structured guidance and templates to enforce API contracts.

Yes, you can use these API design principles to migrate from REST to GraphQL. The framework supports API migrations by modeling resources, redefining types, and standardizing the new GraphQL schema.

Yes, this API design framework works for reviewing existing API consistency. It provides structured guidance and validation templates to review API designs, enforce standard contracts, and identify inconsistencies.

Use GraphQL instead of REST for API pagination when clients need flexible, nested data retrieval with cursor-based connections, whereas REST is often sufficient for simpler, resource-oriented paginated endpoints.