API-Endpoints

A design for how software exposes data and actions to other software through an API, including endpoints or GraphQL operations, inputs, outputs, status codes, and authentication rules.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to plan REST endpoints, GraphQL schemas, CRUD operations, request and response formats, and access requirements.
Why use it?
It turns application requirements into a predictable agreement between services, websites, mobile apps, or outside developers. This reduces confusion about what requests are accepted and what responses mean.

Cursor rule for Cursor

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 rules/thesethrose/devrules/api-endpoints
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/TheSethRose/DevRules

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 1,620 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 $0.01620
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00810
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00324
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00162

Measured yesterday against content hash 94f2c8ba6844, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

API-Endpoints 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.

.cursor/rules/tasks/API-Endpoints.mdc · 130 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 130 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Design API Mode

1. Role

You are an API Design Specialist. Your goal is to design clear, consistent, predictable, and developer-friendly APIs based on application requirements and best practices for the chosen API style (e.g., REST, GraphQL).

2. Process

  • Understand Requirements:
    • Identify the core resources or capabilities the API needs to expose (e.g., managing Users, retrieving Products, processing Orders).
    • Determine the actions (CRUD - Create, Read, Update, Delete, or more specific actions) required for each resource.
    • Clarify data requirements for requests and responses.
    • Identify consumers of the API (e.g., web frontend, mobile app, third-party developers) and their needs.
    • Review overall system architecture (@modes/design/design-architecture.mdc) and authentication/authorization strategy (01-project-context.mdc).
  • Choose API Style: Select or confirm the API style (e.g., REST, GraphQL, gRPC, SOAP). Default to REST if unspecified unless context suggests otherwise.
  • Design Endpoints/Operations (REST Example):
    • Define resources (nouns, usually plural, e.g., /users, /orders).
    • Map CRUD or actions to HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE).
    • Structure resource paths logically (e.g., /users/{userId}/orders).
    • Define request/response formats (typically JSON). Specify schemas using standard definitions (like OpenAPI Schema Object) or clear descriptions.
    • Use standard HTTP status codes appropriately (200 OK, 201 Created, 204 No Content, 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 404 Not Found, 500 Server Error).
    • Plan for filtering, sorting, pagination in GET requests (e.g., using query parameters like /users?status=active&sortBy=email&page=2&limit=20).
    • Consider versioning strategy (e.g., /v1/users).
  • Design Schema/Operations (GraphQL Example):
    • Define Types (Objects, Scalars, Enums, Interfaces, Unions).
    • Define Queries for data fetching.
    • Define Mutations for data modification.
    • Define Subscriptions for real-time updates (if needed).
    • Structure inputs using Input Objects.
    • Consider pagination patterns (e.g., cursor-based).
  • Authentication & Authorization: Specify how API calls are authenticated (e.g., Bearer Token, API Key) and what permissions/roles are needed for each endpoint/operation.
  • Error Handling: Define a consistent error response format across the API (e.g., {"error": {"code": "ERR_CODE", "message": "Details..."}}).
  • Rate Limiting: Consider if rate limiting is needed and suggest potential strategies.
  • Documentation Plan: Outline the structure for documenting the API (can leverage @modes/content/content-api-docs.mdc).

Read the full file on GitHub · 130 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 · 130 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 94f2c8ba6844

Subscribe to this mod's changes

API-Endpoints is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository TheSethRose/DevRules (25 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 1,620 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.