api-response-patterns

What problem does it solve?

This Skill provides patterns for standardizing API responses, solving the challenge of inconsistent data formats and error structures across API endpoints. It enables you to create predictable and developer-friendly APIs, improving client-side consumption and reducing integration complexity.

Core Features & Use Cases

• Consistent Success Responses: Guides on structuring successful API responses with consistent metadata (e.g., pagination info, total counts).
• Standardized Error Responses: Patterns for returning detailed and consistent error messages, including error codes and field-level validation errors.
• Envelope Pattern: Explores using an envelope (e.g., {"data": ..., "metadata": ...}) to wrap API responses, providing a consistent top-level structure.
• Use Case: A frontend developer struggles with inconsistent error messages from different API endpoints. Using this skill, the backend team implements a standardized error response pattern, making it easier for the frontend to parse and display meaningful error feedback to users.

Quick Start

Design a standardized JSON error response structure that includes an error code, a user-friendly message, and an optional array of field-specific validation errors.