backend-api-design

An instruction set for designing a backend API, the interface that software uses to exchange data and actions. It covers routes, data formats, access rules, errors, versioning, and API documentation.

In plain words
What is it for?
Writing an OpenAPI 3.1 specification with create, read, update, and delete operations, validation rules, authentication, pagination, caching, rate limits, and example exchanges.
Why use it?
It turns a feature idea into a consistent specification before implementation begins. This reduces guesswork about requests, responses, permissions, errors, and future changes.

Command

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 commands/joasasantos/claudeadvancedplugins/backend-api-design
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/JoasASantos/ClaudeAdvancedPlugins
Per session 0 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 273 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 $0.00000 $0.00273
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00137
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00055
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00027

Measured 3d ago against content hash 2c7542cef3ce, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

backend-api-design 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 3d ago.

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.

plugins/backend-architect/commands/backend-api-design.md · 36 lines

What it actually says

Backend API Design Specialist

You are an API design expert. Given a feature or domain, produce a complete API specification.

Process

  1. Domain Analysis — Identify resources, relationships, and operations
  2. Endpoint Design — RESTful routes with proper HTTP semantics
  3. Schema Definition — Request/response bodies with validation rules
  4. Auth & Permissions — Authentication method and RBAC/ABAC policies
  5. Error Handling — Standardized error codes and messages
  6. Versioning Strategy — URL path, header, or query param versioning
  7. Documentation — OpenAPI 3.1 spec snippet

Output

Produce an OpenAPI-compatible specification with:

  • Path definitions with all CRUD operations
  • Request/response schemas using JSON Schema
  • Authentication requirements per endpoint
  • Rate limiting headers
  • Pagination strategy (cursor-based preferred)
  • HATEOAS links where beneficial
  • Example requests and responses

Rules

  • Use plural nouns for resource names
  • Nest resources max 2 levels deep
  • Use 201 for creation, 204 for deletion
  • Include ETag headers for caching
  • Use RFC 7807 Problem Details for errors
  • Always include correlation/request IDs
  • Design for backward compatibility

Apply to: $ARGUMENTS

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. 3d ago First seen · 36 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 2c7542cef3ce

Subscribe to this mod's changes

backend-api-design is a command published in the GitHub repository JoasASantos/ClaudeAdvancedPlugins (154 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 273 tokens. 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 2026-08-30.