Assalamu Alaikum 👋
Explore my work & let's build something great - InshAllah
API Design Planner
Designing a backend? Pick your project and features — get a clean REST endpoint plan, auth method, rate-limit and status-code guidance, plus a GraphQL call.
💡 Pro tip: keep your API in its own project and serve it from a subdomain like api.example.com/v1/* — cleaner, independently deployable, and scales separately from your web app.
Plan my APIFeatures / resources
REST API Plan · /api/v1
33
endpoints across 7 resources
Auth (Sanctum)
Users
Follow
Posts
Comments (nested)
Notifications
Search
Production guidance
API Versioning
Prefix every route with /api/v1. When you need breaking changes, ship /v2 and leave existing clients untouched.
Authentication
Sanctum tokens for API/mobile clients; session + CSRF for your own web app.
Validation
Validate every write in a FormRequest class, not the controller — thin controllers, reusable rules, automatic 422s.
Responses
Shape output with API Resources (transformers) and a consistent envelope { data, message }. Don't leak raw models.
Rate Limiting
Use named throttles per group: tight on login/register (~5/min/IP) and search; looser on general reads (~1000/hr).
Pagination & Codes
Paginate all lists (cursor or page). Use 200/201/204, 401/403, 404, 422 (validation), 429 (throttled).
GraphQL
Consider GraphQL if clients need flexible, nested data (feeds, dashboards) in one round-trip — otherwise REST is simpler to ship, cache and version.
A clean API is half the battle
Your API is the contract between your frontend, mobile apps and the outside world — and a messy one slows down every team that touches it. Good APIs are boringly consistent: resource-based URLs, the right HTTP verbs, predictable JSON, sane status codes, proper auth and rate limiting. This API design planner generates that structure for your project — endpoints grouped by resource, a recommended JWT/session strategy, rate-limit defaults, and an honest take on whether you actually need GraphQL. Use it to brief your team or kickstart your routes file.
Common questions
How should I structure a REST API?
Group endpoints by resource (users, posts, orders) and use HTTP verbs for actions: GET to read, POST to create, PATCH to update, DELETE to remove. Keep URLs noun-based (/posts/:id, not /getPost). Return consistent JSON with proper status codes. This planner lays that out for your project automatically.
JWT or session authentication?
Use JWT (Bearer tokens) for APIs consumed by mobile apps and SPAs — they're stateless and easy to scale. For your own server-rendered web app, session cookies + CSRF are simpler and safer. Many apps support both: sessions for the web client, JWT for mobile.
Should I version my API (/api/v1)?
Yes — prefix every route with /api/v1 from day one. It costs nothing now and saves you a world of pain later: when you need a breaking change, you ship /api/v2 and every existing mobile app and integration keeps working on v1 until they migrate. Production Laravel APIs almost always split routes into versioned files (routes/v1, routes/v2).
How do I keep my Laravel API controllers clean?
Validate every write request in a FormRequest class (not the controller), shape every response through an API Resource so you never leak raw models, push business logic into Services/Actions, and use single-action invokable controllers for one-off endpoints. Add named rate limiters per group (e.g. a tighter one for search and login). That's the pattern real production Laravel + Sanctum APIs use.
Do I need GraphQL instead of REST?
Usually not. REST is simpler to build, cache and debug. GraphQL earns its keep when clients need flexible, deeply nested data in one request — think rich social feeds or complex dashboards with many related entities. For most CRUD apps, a clean REST API is the better, faster choice.