name: API Documentation Generator
description: Generates OpenAPI-compatible documentation for REST API endpoints from code or route definitions.
category: coding
tags:
- api
- documentation
- openapi
- swagger
author: simplyutils

API Documentation Generator

What this skill does

This skill reads REST API route handlers (Express, FastAPI, Go net/http, Rails, Django, or any framework) and generates complete OpenAPI 3.0 YAML documentation. It extracts paths, HTTP methods, path/query/body parameters, response shapes, and error codes, then writes properly structured YAML with example request and response bodies. The output can be loaded directly into Swagger UI, Redoc, or any OpenAPI-compatible tool.

Use this when you have undocumented API code and need to produce accurate, usable API documentation quickly.

How to use

Claude Code / Cline

Copy this file to .agents/skills/api-docs-generator/SKILL.md in your project root.

Then point the agent at your routes file and ask:
- "Use the API Documentation Generator skill on server/routes.ts."
- "Generate OpenAPI docs for all routes in src/api/ using the API Documentation Generator skill."

The agent will read the route files and any referenced handler functions to extract parameter and response shapes.

Cursor

Add the "Prompt / Instructions" section to your .cursorrules file. Open your routes file in the editor and ask Cursor to generate the OpenAPI YAML.

Codex

Paste your route definitions and handler code into the chat along with the instructions below. Include type definitions or schema files if they exist — they help Codex produce accurate request/response schemas.

The Prompt / Instructions for the Agent

When asked to generate API documentation, follow these steps:

1. Read the route definitions. For each route, extract:
2. HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE)
3. Path, including path parameters (e.g., /users/:id → /users/{id})
4. Router-level middleware (e.g., authentication guards — these become security entries)

5. The handler function name

6. Read the handler functions. For each handler, extract:

7. Path parameters (e.g., req.params.id)
8. Query parameters (e.g., req.query.page, req.query.limit)
9. Request body shape — read from validation schema (Zod, Joi, Pydantic, etc.) if present, otherwise infer from how req.body fields are used
10. All res.json() / return response shapes — enumerate every response including error paths

11. HTTP status codes returned (200, 201, 400, 401, 404, 500, etc.)

12. Infer data types accurately:

13. If a Zod/Joi/Pydantic/serializer schema exists for the body or response, use it as the source of truth
14. Otherwise infer types from usage: string, number, boolean, array, object
15. Mark fields as required if they are destructured without a default or checked for presence

16. Note nullable: true on fields that may be null

17. Write the OpenAPI 3.0 YAML with this structure:

18. openapi: "3.0.3"
19. info: title, version, description
20. servers: include a localhost dev server at minimum
21. paths: one entry per route
22. components/schemas: reusable schema objects referenced with $ref

23. components/securitySchemes: if auth middleware is detected (Bearer, API key, cookie)

24. For each path entry, include:

25. summary: one sentence describing what the endpoint does
26. description: optional longer explanation
27. parameters: path, query, and header params with name, in, required, schema, description
28. requestBody: with content/application/json/schema and a fully-formed example
29. responses: at minimum the success response and common error responses (400, 401, 404, 500)

30. Each response must have a description and a content/application/json/schema

31. Include realistic example values in request and response bodies. Do not use placeholder values like "string" or 0 — use realistic data (e.g., "[email protected]", 42, "2026-03-15T12:00:00Z").

32. Output the complete YAML in a single code block. Do not truncate.

Example

Input to Agent:

"Use the API Documentation Generator skill on this Express route:

```ts
router.post('/users', async (req, res) => {
const { name, email, role } = req.body;
if (!name || !email) return res.status(400).json({ error: 'name and email are required' });
const user = await db.users.create({ name, email, role: role ?? 'viewer' });
res.status(201).json({ id: user.id, name: user.name, email: user.email, role: user.role });
});

router.get('/users/:id', requireAuth, async (req, res) => {
const user = await db.users.findById(req.params.id);
if (!user) return res.status(404).json({ error: 'User not found' });
res.json({ id: user.id, name: user.name, email: user.email, role: user.role });
});
```"

Output from Agent:

yaml openapi: "3.0.3" info: title: Users API version: "1.0.0" description: Endpoints for managing users. servers: - url: http://localhost:3000 description: Local development components: securitySchemes: bearerAuth: type: http scheme: bearer schemas: User: type: object properties: id: type: string example: "usr_a1b2c3" name: type: string example: "Jane Smith" email: type: string format: email example: "[email protected]" role: type: string enum: [viewer, admin] example: "viewer" Error: type: object properties: error: type: string paths: /users: post: summary: Create a new user requestBody: required: true content: application/json: schema: type: object required: [name, email] properties: name: type: string example: "Jane Smith" email: type: string format: email example: "[email protected]" role: type: string enum: [viewer, admin] default: viewer responses: "201": description: User created successfully. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/User' "400": description: Missing required fields. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error' /users/{id}: get: summary: Get a user by ID security: - bearerAuth: [] parameters: - name: id in: path required: true schema: type: string example: "usr_a1b2c3" responses: "200": description: User found. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/User' "401": description: Not authenticated. "404": description: User not found. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'