Use when you need to design, review, or improve REST APIs with Spring Boot — including HTTP methods, resource URIs, status codes, DTOs, versioning, deprecation and sunset headers, content negotiation (JSON and vendor media types), ISO-8601 instants in DTOs, pagination/sorting/filtering, Bean Validation at the boundary, idempotency, ETag concurrency, HTTP caching, error handling, security, contract-first OpenAPI (OpenAPI Generator), controller advice, and problem details for errors. This should …
Use when you need to design, review, or improve REST APIs with Spring Boot — including HTTP methods, resource URIs, status codes, DTOs, versioning, deprecation and sunset headers, content negotiation (JSON and vendor media types), ISO-8601 instants in DTOs, pagination/sorting/filtering, Bean Validation at the boundary, idempotency, ETag concurrency, HTTP caching, error handling, security, contract-first OpenAPI (OpenAPI Generator), controller advice, and problem details for errors.
This should trigger for requests such as Review Java code for Spring Boot REST API; Apply best practices for Spring Boot REST API in Java code; Design Spring Boot REST controllers and DTOs; Add Problem Details error responses in Spring Boot REST; Improve pagination validation or idempotency in Spring APIs.
Part of Plinth Toolkit
Similar popular skills
Related neighbors and high-traction skills in the same topics — useful to compare before installing.
Deprecation and sunset headers (Deprecation, Sunset, Link rel="successor-version)"
Error handling
API security (TLS, authentication, authorization, input validation)
API contract: OpenAPI file as source of truth for API-first (OpenAPI Generator)
Controller advice and problem details (RFC 7807)
Scope: Apply recommendations based on the reference rules and good/bad code examples.
Constraints
Before applying any REST API changes, ensure the project compiles. If compilation fails, stop immediately. After applying improvements, run full verification.
MANDATORY: Run ./mvnw compile or mvn compile before applying any change
SAFETY: If compilation fails, stop immediately
VERIFY: Run ./mvnw clean verify or mvn clean verify after applying improvements
BEFORE APPLYING: Read the reference for detailed rules and good/bad patterns
EDGE CASE: If request scope is ambiguous, stop and ask a clarifying question before applying changes
EDGE CASE: If required inputs, files, or tooling are missing, report what is missing and ask whether to proceed with setup guidance
When to use this skill
Review Java code for Spring Boot REST API
Apply best practices for Spring Boot REST API in Java code
Design Spring Boot REST controllers and DTOs
Add Problem Details error responses in Spring Boot REST
Improve pagination validation or idempotency in Spring APIs
Workflow
Read reference and assess project context
Read references/302-frameworks-spring-boot-rest.md and inspect the current project setup before proposing changes.
Gather scope and decide target improvements
Identify requested outcomes, constraints, and the minimum safe set of changes to apply.
Apply framework-aligned changes
Implement or refactor configuration/code following the reference patterns and project conventions.
Run verification and report results
Execute appropriate build/tests and summarize what changed, what was verified, and any follow-up actions.
Reference
For detailed guidance, examples, and constraints, see [references/302-frameworks-spring-boot-rest.md](references/302-frameworks-spring-boot-rest.md).
