# API Integration

> API integration patterns for building robust HTTP clients, handling authentication, error handling, and rate limiting.

- Skill: `howmany-zeta/api-integration` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add howmany-zeta/api-integration`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/howmany-zeta/api-integration/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: Howmany-Zeta (https://skillmd.com/u/howmany-zeta)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/howmany-zeta/api-integration

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# API Integration Skill

This skill provides patterns and best practices for building robust API integrations in Python applications.

## When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

- Build HTTP clients to consume REST APIs
- Implement authentication flows (API keys, OAuth, JWT)
- Handle API errors gracefully with retries
- Manage rate limiting and throttling
- Parse and validate API responses

## HTTP Client Best Practices

### Client Setup

1. **Use a session for connection pooling** - Reuse connections for better performance
2. **Set appropriate timeouts** - Always configure connect and read timeouts
3. **Configure base URLs** - Use a base URL to avoid repetition
4. **Add default headers** - Include User-Agent, Accept, and Content-Type headers

### Request Handling

1. **Validate inputs before sending** - Check required parameters
2. **Use appropriate HTTP methods** - GET for reads, POST for creates, etc.
3. **Handle query parameters properly** - Use library features, don't concatenate strings
4. **Stream large responses** - Don't load large files entirely into memory

### Response Processing

1. **Check status codes first** - Handle 4xx and 5xx errors appropriately
2. **Parse JSON safely** - Handle malformed JSON responses
3. **Validate response schema** - Ensure responses match expected format
4. **Log important details** - Request ID, timing, status for debugging

## Error Handling Strategies

### Retry Logic

Implement exponential backoff for transient errors:

- **Retry on**: 429 (Too Many Requests), 500, 502, 503, 504
- **Don't retry on**: 400, 401, 403, 404 (client errors)
- **Use exponential backoff**: Start with 1s, double each retry
- **Set max retries**: Typically 3-5 attempts

### Circuit Breaker Pattern

Prevent cascading failures:

- Track consecutive failures
- Open circuit after threshold (e.g., 5 failures)
- Allow limited requests during half-open state
- Close circuit after successful requests

### Graceful Degradation

When APIs are unavailable:

- Return cached data if available
- Provide meaningful error messages
- Log failures for monitoring
- Consider fallback services

## Available Resources

See `references/api-patterns.md` for detailed implementation patterns.
See `examples/api-client-example.py` for working code examples.
Use `scripts/test-endpoint.sh` to test API endpoints.