API Testing Patterns

A collection of methods for exploratory testing of REST and GraphQL APIs, including discovering endpoints and checking requests, responses, authentication, and errors.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to test HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE; validate response schemas and status codes; check access controls; and find undocumented endpoints.
Why use it?
It provides a repeatable way to find API problems that ordinary happy-path checks may miss. It also helps compare an API with its OpenAPI or Swagger documentation.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/tommymorgan/claude-plugins/api-testing-patterns
Any agent
npx skills add tommymorgan/claude-plugins --skill api-testing-patterns
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/tommymorgan/claude-plugins

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 57 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,865 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. 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 $0.00057 $0.01865
Opus 5 $0.00028 $0.00932
Sonnet 5 $0.00011 $0.00373
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00186

Measured yesterday against content hash f3ca73b2c7b3, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

API Testing Patterns scanned grade A with 1 finding 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.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" https://api.example.com/endpoint
tommymorgan/testing/skills/api-testing-patterns/SKILL.md · 347 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 347 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

API Testing Patterns

Purpose

Provide systematic patterns for autonomous API exploratory testing. Guide agents through comprehensive API testing including endpoint discovery, request/response validation, authentication verification, error handling checks, and security testing.

Core Testing Methodology

API Discovery Strategy

Discover API endpoints through multiple methods:

1. OpenAPI/Swagger Specification

  • Parse spec to extract all endpoints
  • Understand request/response schemas
  • Identify authentication requirements
  • Note documented error codes

2. Common Pattern Discovery

  • Probe common API paths (/api/, /v1/, /graphql)
  • Try standard REST conventions (GET /users, POST /users, etc.)
  • Check for API documentation endpoints (/docs, /swagger, /openapi.json)

3. Undocumented Endpoint Detection

  • Compare discovered endpoints with spec
  • Report endpoints found but not documented (security concern)
  • Note missing endpoints that should exist

Comprehensive Testing Coverage

Test each endpoint across multiple dimensions:

HTTP Methods:

  • GET: Read operations
  • POST: Create operations
  • PUT/PATCH: Update operations
  • DELETE: Delete operations
  • OPTIONS: CORS preflight

Response Codes:

  • 200/201: Success scenarios
  • 400: Bad request (invalid input)
  • 401: Unauthorized (missing/invalid auth)
  • 403: Forbidden (insufficient permissions)
  • 404: Not found (non-existent resources)
  • 500: Server errors

Input Variations:

  • Valid data (happy path)
  • Invalid data types
  • Missing required fields
  • Boundary values (empty, very long, negative)
  • Malicious inputs (SQL injection, XSS attempts)

Authentication Testing

Common Authentication Patterns

Bearer Token:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" https://api.example.com/endpoint

API Key:

curl -H "X-API-Key: <key>" https://api.example.com/endpoint

Basic Auth:

curl -u username:password https://api.example.com/endpoint

Authentication Tests

Read the full file on GitHub · 347 lines

Files

What ships with it

3 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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 · 347 lines · 57 tokens per session scan A f3ca73b2c7b3

Subscribe to this mod's changes

API Testing Patterns is a skill published in the GitHub repository tommymorgan/claude-plugins (4 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 57 tokens to every session and 1,865 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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