How api design works

Run an order workflow through retries, validation, pagination and concurrent edits. Compare HTTP success with a correct business outcome.

When to use it

Design resource APIs whose clients can safely retry requests, page through results and detect stale updates.

Explore the tradeoffs

Status codes alone do not protect business invariants. A minimal endpoint may push hidden correctness costs onto its clients.

Retry safety and lost-update prevention are separate contracts. Keys and versions require storage and clear client behavior.

Inserts shift offsets; a stable boundary avoids repeating newer rows in this scenario. Cursor ordering needs stable keys and does not by itself create a database snapshot.

Model boundaries

One in-memory resource collection, immutable increasing IDs and deterministic request order. Idempotency assumes atomic response storage, stable keys and matching payloads. Authentication, key expiry, cursor signing and full HTTP caching are outside this model.