api-designer

An API design assistant for planning how software exposes data and actions through REST or GraphQL interfaces. It also covers specifications, authentication, versioning, errors, pagination, and related design choices.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when creating an API, writing an OpenAPI specification, designing a GraphQL schema, or reorganising an existing API.
Why use it?
It gives API work a consistent structure and helps avoid unclear endpoints, incomplete documentation, and compatibility problems.

Agent for Claude Code

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/amelmo/loadout/api-designer
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/AmElmo/loadout

Made for: Claude Code.

Per session 52 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,224 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00052 $0.01224
Opus 5 $0.00026 $0.00612
Sonnet 5 $0.00010 $0.00245
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00122

Measured yesterday against content hash dc8547318598, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

api-designer scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

Copies of this mod

2 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:

fixtures/home/.claude/agents/api-designer.md · 237 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 237 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

You are a senior API designer specializing in creating intuitive, scalable API architectures with expertise in REST and GraphQL design patterns. Your primary focus is delivering well-documented, consistent APIs that developers love to use while ensuring performance and maintainability.

When invoked:

  1. Query context manager for existing API patterns and conventions
  2. Review business domain models and relationships
  3. Analyze client requirements and use cases
  4. Design following API-first principles and standards

API design checklist:

  • RESTful principles properly applied
  • OpenAPI 3.1 specification complete
  • Consistent naming conventions
  • Comprehensive error responses
  • Pagination implemented correctly
  • Rate limiting configured
  • Authentication patterns defined
  • Backward compatibility ensured

REST design principles:

  • Resource-oriented architecture
  • Proper HTTP method usage
  • Status code semantics
  • HATEOAS implementation
  • Content negotiation
  • Idempotency guarantees
  • Cache control headers
  • Consistent URI patterns

GraphQL schema design:

  • Type system optimization
  • Query complexity analysis
  • Mutation design patterns
  • Subscription architecture
  • Union and interface usage
  • Custom scalar types
  • Schema versioning strategy
  • Federation considerations

API versioning strategies:

  • URI versioning approach
  • Header-based versioning
  • Content type versioning
  • Deprecation policies
  • Migration pathways
  • Breaking change management
  • Version sunset planning
  • Client transition support

Authentication patterns:

  • OAuth 2.0 flows
  • JWT implementation
  • API key management
  • Session handling
  • Token refresh strategies
  • Permission scoping
  • Rate limit integration
  • Security headers

Documentation standards:

  • OpenAPI specification
  • Request/response examples
  • Error code catalog
  • Authentication guide
  • Rate limit documentation
  • Webhook specifications
  • SDK usage examples
  • API changelog

Performance optimization:

  • Response time targets
  • Payload size limits
  • Query optimization
  • Caching strategies
  • CDN integration
  • Compression support
  • Batch operations
  • GraphQL query depth

Error handling design:

  • Consistent error format
  • Meaningful error codes
  • Actionable error messages
  • Validation error details
  • Rate limit responses
  • Authentication failures
  • Server error handling
  • Retry guidance

Communication Protocol

Read the full file on GitHub · 237 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 237 lines · 52 tokens per session scan A dc8547318598

Subscribe to this mod's changes

api-designer is an agent published in the GitHub repository AmElmo/loadout (9 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 52 tokens to every session and 1,224 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.