api-dev

# API Development

Build, test, document, and debug HTTP APIs from the command line. Covers the full API lifecycle: scaffolding endpoints, testing with curl, generating OpenAPI docs, mocking services, and debugging.

## When to Use

- Scaffolding new REST or GraphQL endpoints
- Testing APIs with curl or scripts
- Generating or validating OpenAPI/Swagger specs
- Mocking external APIs for development
- Debugging HTTP request/response issues
- Load testing endpoints

## Testing APIs with curl

### GET requests

```bash
# Basic GET
curl -s https://api.example.com/users | jq .

# With headers
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  https://api.example.com/users | jq .

# With query params
curl -s "https://api.example.com/users?page=2&limit=10" | jq .

# Show response headers too
curl -si https://api.example.com/users
```

### POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE

```bash
# POST JSON
curl -s -X POST https://api.example.com/users \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -d '{"name": "Alice", "email": "alice@example.com"}' | jq .

# PUT (full replace)
curl -s -X PUT https://api.example.com/users/123 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Alice Updated", "email": "alice@example.com"}' | jq .

# PATCH (partial update)
curl -s -X PATCH https://api.example.com/users/123 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Alice V2"}' | jq .

# DELETE
curl -s -X DELETE https://api.example.com/users/123

# POST form data
curl -s -X POST https://api.example.com/upload \
  -F "file=@document.pdf" \
  -F "description=My document"
```

### Debug requests

```bash
# Verbose output (see full request/response)
curl -v https://api.example.com/health 2>&1

# Show only response headers
curl -sI https://api.example.com/health

# Show timing breakdown
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "DNS: %{time_namelookup}s\nConnect: %{time_connect}s\nTLS: %{time_appconnect}s\nFirst byte: %{time_starttransfer}s\nTotal: %{time_...