SKILL.md
API Response Optimization
Table of Contents
- [Overview](#overview)
- [When to Use](#when-to-use)
- [Quick Start](#quick-start)
- [Reference Guides](#reference-guides)
- [Best Practices](#best-practices)
Overview
Fast API responses improve overall application performance and user experience. Optimization focuses on payload size, caching, and query efficiency.
When to Use
- Slow API response times
- High server CPU/memory usage
- Large response payloads
- Performance degradation
- Scaling bottlenecks
Quick Start
Minimal working example:
// Inefficient response (unnecessary data)
GET /api/users/123
{
"id": 123,
"name": "John",
"email": "john@example.com",
"password_hash": "...", // ❌ Should never send
"ssn": "123-45-6789", // ❌ Sensitive data
"internal_id": "xyz",
"created_at": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z",
"updated_at": "2024-01-02T00:00:00Z",
"meta_data": {...}, // ❌ Unused fields
"address": {
"street": "123 Main",
"city": "City",
"state": "ST",
"zip": "12345",
"geo": {...} // ❌ Not needed
}
}
// Optimized response (only needed fields)
GET /api/users/123
{
"id": 123,
// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)Reference Guides
Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:
Guide
Contents
Response Payload Optimization
Caching Strategies
Compression & Performance
Compression & Performance
Optimization Checklist
Best Practices
✅ DO
- Follow established patterns and conventions
- Write clean, maintainable code
- Add appropriate documentation
- Test thoroughly before deploying
❌ DON'T
- Skip testing or validation
- Ignore error handling
- Hard-code configuration values