How do I install the API Verification skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add jakeselby/api-verification in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is API Verification safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Capability flags: makes network calls. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with API Verification?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is API Verification free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published API Verification?

JakeSelby (@jakeselby) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

API Verification by jakeselby — Agent Skill

Name: API Verification
Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Author: JakeSelby

API Verification

Prove a search, filter or API answer is real before you rely on it, and budget web search across a fan-out. Use when querying an unfamiliar API, when a filter returns suspiciously clean results, when a per-item error might have been swallowed, and when briefing research agents.

JakeSelby Updated Sep 22, 2026

File contents

Research and API verification

The operative lines live in the resident rule primitives/rules/research-and-verification.md. This skill carries the reasoning, the arithmetic behind the search budget, and what to do after a fan-out.

Search budget

Web search is capped per session and shared by every subagent in that session. On Claude Code the cap is 200 calls. An 18-agent fan-out briefed for 35 searches each exhausts it within minutes; later agents run on fetch alone.

Budget accordingly: roughly 10 agents at 20 searches, or 6 at 30. For bigger runs, stagger waves across separate sessions, or brief agents to lean on fetching known primary sources.

After a fan-out, check each subagent's search count and re-run starved, discovery-heavy dimensions in a fresh session. Fetch-only agents are fine for licence pages and official docs, thin for "what shipped recently" questions.

Prove an API answer is real

Unknown query parameters are silently ignored by most APIs. Prove a filter bites by sending a value that can never match and confirming the result is empty.
Spot-check one returned record against the field you filtered on before trusting the set.
A swallowed per-item error is unknown, not absent. Count the failures separately from the empties.
Re-check the live spec before assuming a documented workaround is still needed.

Prefer primary sources

Defer to human-written documentation over agent-generated summaries, and trace every rule you rely on to a quotable source. When a file's header and its body disagree, neither is ground truth: find the code or the spec that decides it.

---name: api-verificationdescription: Prove a search, filter or API answer is real before you rely on it, and budget web search across a fan-out. Use when querying an unfamiliar API, when a filter returns suspiciously clean results, when a per-item error might have been swallowed, and when briefing research agents.---# Research and API verificationThe operative lines live in the resident rule `primitives/rules/research-and-verification.md`. Thisskill carries the reasoning, the arithmetic behind the search budget, and what to do after afan-out.## Search budget**Web search is capped per session and shared by every subagent in that session.** On ClaudeCode the cap is 200 calls. An 18-agent fan-out briefed for 35 searches each exhausts it withinminutes; later agents run on fetch alone.Budget accordingly: roughly 10 agents at 20 searches, or 6 at 30. For bigger runs, staggerwaves across separate sessions, or brief agents to lean on fetching known primary sources.After a fan-out, check each subagent's search count and re-run starved, discovery-heavydimensions in a fresh session. Fetch-only agents are fine for licence pages and official docs,thin for "what shipped recently" questions.## Prove an API answer is real- **Unknown query parameters are silently ignored by most APIs.** Prove a filter bites by sending a value that can never match and confirming the result is empty.- **Spot-check one returned record** against the field you filtered on before trusting the set.- **A swallowed per-item error is unknown, not absent.** Count the failures separately from the empties.- **Re-check the live spec** before assuming a documented workaround is still needed.## Prefer primary sourcesDefer to human-written documentation over agent-generated summaries, and trace every rule yourely on to a quotable source. When a file's header and its body disagree, neither is groundtruth: find the code or the spec that decides it.

Frequently asked questions