The "API First" Illusion: Why Your "Simple" Endpoints Turn Into Technical Debt (And How to Fix It)

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/the-api-first-illusion-why-your-simple-endpoints-turn-into-technical-debt-and-how-to-fix-it. Stop treating API design like a plumbing task. Use this system prompt to enforce Richardson Maturity Model Level 3 and build endpoints that actually scale. Check more stories related to programming at: https://hackernoon.com/c/programming. You can also check exclusive content about #api-design, #software-architecture, #rest-api, #ai-programming, #developer-productivity, #system-architecture, #openapi-specs, #hackernoon-top-story, and more. This story was written by: @huizhudev. Learn more about this writer by checking @huizhudev's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. In a microservices world, your API *is* the product. Bad API design isn't just ugly code; it's architectural entropy. The "Contract-First" Enforcer forces Large Language Models to stop being "code generators" and start being "specification designers"