API

Skill: api

Projects the upstream artifacts into one interface contract. By default that's an HTTP/OpenAPI contract; this skill is interface-kind aware — and the kind comes from the surface(s) design declared in sad.md frontmatter target_surfaces, read here, not re-derived (→ ../_shared/surfaces.md). For a non-HTTP project it produces the matching contract form (or steps aside):

• HTTP / REST (default) → contracts/openapi.yaml (OpenAPI 3.1) + api-sync-report.md.
• gRPC / RPC → a .proto (or the repo's IDL) with the same derive-and-drift discipline.
• CLI → contracts/cli.md — the command/flag/exit-code surface derived from the AC.
• Library / SDK → contracts/public-api.md — the public signatures/types the feature exposes.
• Event-only / worker → just contracts/events.md (no request/response surface).
• No external interface (pure internal logic) → skip with a one-line note in the report; go straight to tasks.

Whatever the form, the contract is derived from data-model.md — or, on a legal no-schema-change skip, the existing schema — plus the sad.md §6 sequences + the spec's AC, never typed by hand — generation that diverges from the model or the sequences is the bug this skill exists to catch. The rest of this file details the HTTP path (the common case); the same derive → drift-check → reconcile loop applies to the other forms with the form-appropriate artifact.

This skill keeps only its own machinery. Question phrasing is shared → ../_shared/ask-style.md. Depth (events doc only when async; one resource vs full surface) follows the size matrix → ../_shared/size-matrix.md. The drift-resolution dialog reuses the shared 4-state actions — keep it short, point the machinery to _shared.

Contract summary/description prose follows artifact_language — paths, operationId, status codes and schema names never translate → ../_shared/artifact-language.md.

Owner

Backend Lead (drives the interface). The PM confirms each endpoint maps to a real user story; a frontend / consumer engineer is the first reader — the contract is locked before they start integration.

Inputs

• <slug> — same feature slug used by every earlier stage.
• Gate (conditional — hard-refuse only when a schema change exists): docs/features/<slug>/data-model.md. When present, it is the source of typed fields and constraints. When absent, evaluate data-model's N/A condition (no schema change — size-matrix fast lane) yourself: sad.md §5 declares no new building blocks/entities, no staged docs/features/<slug>/migrations/, and the spec introduces no new entity → proceed, deriving types/constraints from the existing schema (the live migrations/ DDL + architecture-map.md §Migrations/§Conventions) and saying so loudly in the handoff. Absent and a schema change exists → STOP and point: «run data-model <slug> first — the contract is derived from its entities».
• (Expected) sad.md frontmatter target_surfaces — picks the contract form (step 1). Absent or empty → warn («surfaces undeclared — re-run design, or proceeding as backend-service») and treat as [backend-service], falling back to the architecture-map derivation (→ ../_shared/surfaces.md).
• (Expected) docs/features/<slug>/sad.md §6 — the Mermaid sequenceDiagram blocks. Their alt/else branches become the error responses; an async participant (<message-bus> / <external-system>) on a mutating flow marks its endpoint Idempotency-Key-required and seeds events.md. Absent → note the gap (error branches derived from spec.md §5 only — likely misses authorization branches) and still generate.
• (Expected) docs/features/<slug>/spec.md — §4 user stories give the endpoint list; §5 acceptance criteria give the shape of each happy + error outcome. The spec deliberately holds no HTTP/status/error-code/SQL detail — that mapping is this skill's job.
• (Optional) docs/features/<slug>/.size — depth hint. Absent → default to M (full surface) and say so loudly in the handoff — «size M (default — no .size; run /sdd:classify-size <slug>)». docs/features/<slug>/adr/*.md — override defaults (versioning, error format, auth scheme) when an ADR mandates it; CONTEXT.md (read both repo-root and docs/features/<slug>/ — per-feature wins → ../glossary/SKILL.md) — glossary terms become schema names verbatim. Existing contracts/openapi.yaml → diff and update in place, never overwrite whole-cloth.

Protocol

1. Gate + interface kind + read. test -f docs/features/<slug>/data-model.md — a three-way gate, not a binary one:
   • present → derive from it (the default path below, unchanged);
   • absent + no schema change (evaluate data-model's N/A condition yourself: sad.md §5 names no new building blocks/entities, no staged docs/features/<slug>/migrations/, spec introduces no new entity) → PROCEED — this is the legal fast-lane skip: derive types/constraints from the existing schema (live migrations/ DDL + architecture-map.md §Migrations/§Conventions), record each field-origin as existing schema — <migration/DDL anchor> with the same confidence scale, and state loudly in the handoff: «data-model.md absent — legal fast-lane skip (no schema change); fields derived from the existing schema»;
   • absent + a schema change exists → refuse with the pointer above. Determine the interface kind — read sad.md frontmatter target_surfaces FIRST (design already declared it; the surface picks the contract form per ../_shared/surfaces.md: backend-service → OpenAPI / gRPC / events per its sub-kind; cli → contracts/cli.md; worker → contracts/events.md; library-sdk → contracts/public-api.md; a UI surface — web-frontend / mobile-app / desktop-app — consumes the backend contract, it does not author one). Fall back to deriving the kind from docs/architecture-map.md + the spec's capabilities only if the SAD or the field is absent (a greenfield run where design was skipped). HTTP/REST → the OpenAPI path below (the default, detailed here); gRPC/CLI/library/event-only → produce the matching contract form (see the intro) with this same derive→drift→reconcile loop; no external interface (pure internal logic) → skip to tasks with a one-line note in the report — this self-skip is api's N/A condition in the size-matrix fast lane. Then read data-model.md (entities, fields, types, constraints) — or, on a legal skip, the existing schema sources named above — plus sad.md §6 (flows + alt-branches + async actors), spec.md §4/§5. Surface a one-line "found / missing" note for sad.md and spec.md — never refuse on their absence, only narrow the derivation and record the gap.
2. Copy the template. ./templates/openapi.yaml → docs/features/<slug>/contracts/openapi.yaml. If async flows exist, also ./templates/events.md → contracts/events.md. Fill info.description from spec.md §1 (why this API exists).
3. Derive endpoints + schemas. One endpoint (or more) per §4 user story. Every request/response field traces to a data-model.md entity column — or, on a legal skip, to an existing-schema column (a live migration's DDL) — copy its constraints across (maxLength/pattern/enum from the model's bounded types). Never invent a field with no origin in any input — ask the user where it comes from. $ref every shared schema; no inline duplication. Lists paginate by cursor (?after=&before=&limit=), wrapped in {items, has_next, has_prev, next_cursor}.
4. Derive error responses from the sequences. Each endpoint covered by a §6 flow: turn every alt … else … end branch into a responses entry. The error body is the unified envelope {code, message, details?}; code follows the neutral convention module.error_name (snake_case, e.g. lesson.not_owned, lesson.invalid_state) — a naming rule, not a language artifact. Map status by class (4xx client / 5xx server). This closes the spec's usual blind spot — §5 lists the happy path + a couple of errors; the sequences enumerate the authorization and concurrent-state branches the spec omits.
5. Async + idempotency. A mutating endpoint whose §6 flow shows a retry note or an async actor is marked Idempotency-Key-required (state the TTL). For each async message, fill an events.md entry: event name module.action.vN, payload schema, producer, consumers, retry / dead-letter behaviour.
6. Examples + placeholder data. Every operation carries a request example + a success example + an error example, using placeholder values only (<...>@example.test, +380 00 000 00 00, Test User) — never real PII.
7. Inline DRIFT CHECK (bidirectional) + write the report. Compare the generated contract against the read artifacts and write docs/features/<slug>/contracts/api-sync-report.md — see ./references/drift-check.md. It has a field-origins table (one row per operation.field: path | origin | confidence) and a checklist. The check runs both directions:
   • forward (contract derived correctly): endpoint↔model, error-code↔repo, validation↔constraint, OpenAPI↔sequence.
   • back-feed (coverage cross-check): every spec.md §5 AC maps to ≥1 operation/response; every operation maps to a §4 user story + ≥1 AC; every sad.md §6 alt-branch has a response, and any error/authorization response the contract needs but no §6 flow shows is a sequence gap. A gap here is not an api bug — it's a hole upstream: surface it and resolve it as Save-as-OQ with the upstream stage as owner — the OQ row names the producing stage as owner (specify for a missing AC, sequences for a missing branch) with due «before the contract is finalized», so the source gets fixed through the standard 4-state machine, not a fifth action. A core finding failing (or ≥3 flags total) pauses the run — resolve each via the shared 4-state actions (../_shared/ask-style.md): Accept / Fix (the contract) / Save-as-OQ / Drop. A fix that belongs upstream (the spec's AC, the sequence) is the Save-as-OQ variant with the upstream stage as owner (see step 7's back-feed) — never a fifth action. Never silently edit the sources — surface the mismatch and let the human pick the right artifact (the contract, the spec's AC, or the sequence).
8. Lint + write + commit. Suggest spectral lint contracts/openapi.yaml (add it to the project's check target if not yet wired). On a clean check, the files are written; propose commit api: <slug> contract. Then emit the stage-handoff block per ../_shared/handoff.md — What I did + Review (contracts/openapi.yaml, api-sync-report.md, + events.md if async) + Run next — resolve the next stage per .route (the Routes table in ../_shared/size-matrix.md): forward /sdd:screens <slug>; screens' N/A condition = no UI surface declared (sad.md target_surfaces contains none of web-frontend / mobile-app / desktop-app), skip target /sdd:tasks <slug> (on quick — auto-skip with the reason + inverted ↳ or; on standard — offer the ↳ or; on full — no skip line).

Reconcile mode

/sdd:api <slug> --reconcile. Re-derives after an upstream artifact changed (typically data-model.md arrived or was tightened after a thinner first pass). It re-reads inputs, tightens loose types where the model now has a constraint, refreshes the field-origins confidence column, and — the load-bearing part — surfaces any field that had an inferred origin but now disagrees with the model. That disagreement is real drift, not stale incompleteness. info.version is never bumped silently; the user does that with a CHANGELOG line.

Definition of Done

• docs/features/<slug>/contracts/openapi.yaml written: OpenAPI 3.1, BearerAuth global with public endpoints declaring explicit security: [], every error response the {code, message, details?} envelope, every operation with examples, all shared types via $ref.
• api-sync-report.md written alongside: field-origins table + the 4-point drift checklist, every core finding ✓ or explicitly resolved with the user.
• Every endpoint maps to a §4 user story; every field traces to a data-model.md column (or, on a legal fast-lane skip, to an existing-schema column named in the field-origins table); every error code exists in the repo's error definitions (checked in the form the repo uses).
• contracts/events.md present iff the feature has async flows; each event has a payload schema, producer, consumers, retry / DLQ note.
• The step-7 bidirectional drift check + api-sync-report.md are this skill's structural self-check (../_shared/self-check.md); its result is reported in the handoff.

Anti-patterns

• Contract written by hand, then the model/sequences bent to fit it. The arrow is one-way: model (or the existing schema on a legal skip) + sequences + spec → contract.
• Skipping the drift check because "it was just generated, of course it matches". Generation can match the spec-as-read while diverging from the model or the sequences — different files, different authors. A clean 4/4 ✓ is cheap; a silent ✗ in prod is not.
• Error responses from the spec only. §5 lists happy + a couple of errors; the §6 sequences hold the authorization and concurrent-state branches. Skipping them leaves blind spots.
• Inventing a field with no origin in any input, or silently dropping one that left data-model.md (keep it with a # stale note and surface it — the human decides).
• Tripping the hard refuse when the skip was legal — bouncing a no-schema-change feature back to data-model just to produce an empty document. The gate is conditional (step 1): refuse only when a schema change actually exists; otherwise derive from the existing schema and say so.
• Stack-specific schema or error names. Schemas use the domain language from data-model.md; error codes are the neutral module.error_name convention — not a Go/TS/Python idiom and not tied to any driver's error type.
• Free-text errors ({"error": "failed"}), ?v=2 query versioning, nullable: true (3.0 style — use type: [string, null]), offset pagination, or real PII in examples.
• Re-deriving the interface kind when design already declared it. target_surfaces in sad.md is the primary signal — read it; the architecture-map derivation is the fallback only when the SAD/field is absent (greenfield). Silently re-inferring HTTP-vs-events on every run is the double-derivation this skill's surface-awareness removes.

References & template

• ../_shared/ask-style.md — canonical question/option phrasing for the drift-resolution dialog (step 7).
• ../_shared/size-matrix.md — MVP (one resource, events only if async) vs Full surface depth.
• ../_shared/surfaces.md — the declared target_surfaces (read from sad.md) pick the contract form; this skill reads, never re-derives.
• ./references/drift-check.md — the field-origins table + 4-point drift checklist, reconcile semantics, conflict table.
• ./templates/openapi.yaml — OpenAPI 3.1 scaffold: BearerAuth, cursor page wrapper, {code, message, details?} Error schema.
• ./templates/events.md — async event-contract scaffold (producer / consumers / payload / retry / DLQ).