---
name: api-product-naming-documentation-generator
description: "Generates developer-friendly API resource names, endpoint paths, method descriptions, parameter documentation, and usage guidance from a technical spec — including naming consistency review, request/response examples, and error documentation. Use when naming API endpoints, writing or standardizing API reference docs, or making a public or partner API easier for developers to adopt."
argument-hint: "[api-spec] [resource-domain]"
allowed-tools: ["Read"]
---

# API Product Naming & Documentation Generator

## Purpose
Turn a technical spec or endpoint list into clean, RESTful resource names and complete reference documentation — endpoint descriptions, parameter tables, request/response examples, and error handling — that a developer can read once and integrate against without asking questions. Solves inconsistent naming, thin descriptions, and missing examples that slow API adoption and inflate support load.

## When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Name or rename API endpoints, resources, or methods
- Write reference documentation for a new or existing API
- Standardize inconsistent endpoint naming across a growing API surface
- Convert an OpenAPI/Swagger spec or raw endpoint list into readable developer docs
- Document request parameters, response fields, and error codes for an endpoint
- Improve developer experience or reduce integration-related support tickets for an API

## Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- **API surface**: The endpoints, resources, or operations to name/document (raw list, OpenAPI spec, or feature description)
- **Resource domain**: What the API manages (e.g., payments, users, inventory, messaging)
- **API style**: REST / GraphQL / RPC — and current version if any
- **Authentication method**: API key / OAuth / bearer token / none
- **Audience**: Internal / partner / public developers, and their expected familiarity
- **Existing conventions**: Any naming patterns, casing, or base URL structure already in use
- **Consumer language(s)**: Primary SDK or example language (cURL, JavaScript, Python, etc.)

If API style or example language is missing, default to REST with cURL examples and note the assumption.

## Instructions

### Step 1: Establish Naming Conventions
Lock the rules before naming anything, so output is internally consistent.
- **Resources are nouns, plural**: `/invoices`, `/customers`, `/subscriptions` — not `/getInvoice` or `/invoice`
- **Actions come from HTTP methods, not names**: GET (read), POST (create), PATCH (partial update), PUT (replace), DELETE (remove)
- **Hierarchy via nesting, max 2 levels deep**: `/customers/{id}/invoices` is fine; `/customers/{id}/invoices/{id}/lines/{id}/taxes` is a smell
- **Casing**: kebab-case or snake_case in paths, snake_case or camelCase in JSON fields — pick one and hold it
- **Non-CRUD actions as sub-resources or verbs**: `/orders/{id}/cancel` (POST) for state transitions that don't map to CRUD
- **Query params for filtering/pagination**: `?status=active&limit=50&cursor=...` — never bake filters into the path
- If existing conventions were provided, adopt them and flag any violations rather than overriding silently.

### Step 2: Name Each Resource and Endpoint
For every operation in the surface, produce:
- **Resource name**: The canonical noun
- **Endpoint path**: Full path with path parameters in `{braces}`
- **HTTP method**: Correct verb for the operation
- **Operation summary**: One imperative line (e.g., "Create a customer")
- Flag any name that is ambiguous, overloaded, or inconsistent with the established convention, with a suggested fix.

### Step 3: Write Endpoint Descriptions
For each endpoint, write a 2–4 sentence description that answers: what it does, when a developer would call it, and any important behavior (idempotency, side effects, rate limits, async processing). Avoid restating the method name in prose — add information the path alone doesn't convey.

### Step 4: Document Parameters and Fields
Produce a parameter table per endpoint with columns: **Name**, **In** (path/query/body/header), **Type**, **Required**, **Description**, **Example**. For request bodies and responses, document each field the same way. Descriptions must state constraints (min/max, enum values, format like ISO-8601) — not just "the customer's email."

### Step 5: Generate Request and Response Examples
For each endpoint provide:
- A complete example request in the consumer's language, including auth header
- A realistic success response with representative values (not `"string"` / `0` placeholders) and the HTTP status code
- Values that are internally consistent across the example (the ID in the response matches the resource created)

### Step 6: Document Errors and Edge Cases
For each endpoint list the likely error responses: status code, error code/slug, when it occurs, and how to resolve it. Cover at minimum authentication failure, validation failure, and not-found where applicable. Include a note on rate limiting and pagination behavior if relevant to the resource.

### Step 7: Consistency Review
Sweep the full output for uniformity: casing, pluralization, parameter naming (`user_id` vs `userId` mixed), timestamp field conventions, and error format. Report any inconsistencies found and correct them.

## Output Format
- **Structure**: Naming conventions section up front, then one documented block per endpoint, then a consistency review summary
- **Length**: 1,000–1,600 words (scales with number of endpoints)
- **Format**: Structured reference document — parameter tables, fenced code blocks for examples, prose only for descriptions
- **Sections**: Naming Conventions → Endpoint Reference (per endpoint: path + method + description + parameter table + request example + response example + errors) → Consistency Review & Flags
- **Tone**: Precise, developer-facing, assumes technical literacy — no marketing language, no filler

## Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] Every resource name is a plural noun and every action is expressed through the HTTP method — no verbs in paths except intentional state transitions
- [ ] Every endpoint has a description, parameter table, request example, response example, and error list
- [ ] Casing and field-naming conventions are identical across all endpoints (spot-check at least 3)
- [ ] Example values are realistic and internally consistent — no `"string"`, `0`, or lorem placeholders
- [ ] Each error entry includes a status code, a cause, and a resolution
- [ ] Any naming or convention violations found are explicitly flagged with a suggested fix

## Notes
- The single biggest adoption killer is inconsistency — one endpoint using `userId` and another using `user_id` erodes trust faster than a missing feature; the consistency review exists to catch exactly this.
- Prefer boring, predictable names over clever ones. Developers should be able to guess your next endpoint before reading the docs.
- If the spec includes non-CRUD operations that don't fit REST cleanly, document them as action sub-resources and note the trade-off rather than forcing an awkward noun.
- When documenting an existing API you cannot rename, focus on description and example quality and list naming issues as a separate "future v-next" recommendation.

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## How to use this skill

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Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.

**Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:**

1. Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
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