Connect REST API Patterns

Connect REST API Patterns

Connect REST API exposes Chatter feeds, CMS content, Experience Cloud, and moderation APIs with richer shapes and side-effects than raw SObject access. Use it when the business operation is 'post a feed item with mentions' or 'publish CMS content' rather than 'insert FeedItem row'.

Adoption Signals

Chatter posts with mentions / rich text, CMS content authoring, community moderation, reports filters at scale.

• Required when the standard REST/SOAP APIs would force the consumer to assemble Chatter feed elements by hand.
• Required for Experience Cloud surfaces where the same payload feeds both UI rendering and external clients.

Recommended Workflow

1. Identify the Connect resource (/connect/communities/{id}/chatter/feed-elements).
2. Prefer ConnectApi Apex namespace over REST when inside Apex — same capability, better typing.
3. Pagination via nextPageUrl — don't compute offsets manually.
4. Authenticate with Named Credential + OAuth for external callers.
5. Test with low-privilege users to catch perm gaps before go-live.

Key Considerations

• Connect API respects sharing; raw SObject queries as System Admin can mask issues.
• Response payloads are verbose; request only the fields you need via ?include where supported.
• CMS endpoints require Experience Cloud license.
• Chatter posts via Connect create notifications — posting from a trigger can cascade.

Worked Examples (see references/examples.md)

• Post feed item with mention — Notify record owner
• CMS content publish — Publish a Knowledge article

Common Gotchas (see references/gotchas.md)

• Missing community context — Post appears in wrong feed.
• Sharing mismatch — Integration user can't post on behalf of another.
• Verbose payload bloat — Response 500kB.

Top LLM Anti-Patterns (full list in references/llm-anti-patterns.md)

• Inserting FeedItem directly when mentions matter
• Manual pagination math
• Missing community context

Official Sources Used

• Apex REST & Callouts — https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_callouts.htm
• Named Credentials — https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.named_credentials_about.htm
• Connect REST API — https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.chatterapi.meta/chatterapi/
• Private Connect — https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.private_connect_overview.htm
• Bulk API 2.0 — https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api_asynch.meta/api_asynch/
• Pub/Sub API — https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/platform/pub-sub-api/guide/intro.html