REST APIs - lesson 8 | HackIndia Skills

REST APIs - lesson 8 | HackIndia Skills | HackIndia

Example

README starter

Use this as a minimum README shape. Edit names, commands, and endpoints for your API.

# Campus Tasks API

A small REST API for managing campus club tasks.

## Run locally

1. Install dependencies
   npm install

2. Copy env file
   cp .env.example .env

3. Start the server
   npm run dev

Base URL: http://localhost:3000/api/v1

## Try it

List tasks with pagination:
curl "http://localhost:3000/api/v1/tasks?page=1&limit=5"

Create a task:
curl -X POST "http://localhost:3000/api/v1/tasks" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title":"Book seminar hall","dueDate":"2026-02-10"}'

## Example error

Request:
POST /api/v1/tasks
{}

Response: 400 Bad Request
{
  "error": {
    "code": "VALIDATION_ERROR",
    "message": "title is required"
  }
}

Example

Smoke test file

Add a small file like scripts/smoke.sh. It proves the API starts and one important endpoint responds.

#!/bin/sh

BASE_URL=${BASE_URL:-http://localhost:3000/api/v1}

echo "Checking health..."
curl -i "$BASE_URL/health"

echo "Listing tasks..."
curl -i "$BASE_URL/tasks?page=1&limit=5"

Ship the API repo

One repo test

What to ship

Repo checklist

README starter

Use AI carefully

Common shipping mistakes

Smoke test file

Do this now

Quick check