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SDK Design

Master plan for designing developer-friendly software development kits and libraries. This skill covers API design, language-specific idioms, documentation, versioning, and distribution strategies for creating SDKs that provide excellent developer experience across multiple programming languages.

Status​

Master Plan Available

Key Topics​

  • SDK Architecture

    • Client design patterns (fluent, builder, factory)
    • Authentication and session management
    • Request/response handling
    • Error handling and retry logic
    • Async vs sync API design

  • Language-Specific Design

    • JavaScript/TypeScript SDK patterns
    • Python SDK conventions (PEP 8)
    • Go SDK idioms
    • Java/Kotlin patterns
    • Ruby, PHP, .NET considerations

  • Developer Experience

    • Intuitive API surface design
    • Type safety and IntelliSense support
    • Sensible defaults and configuration
    • Examples and code snippets
    • Migration guides between versions

  • Error Handling

    • Exception hierarchy design
    • Error codes and messages
    • Validation and early failure
    • Logging and debugging support
    • Retry strategies and circuit breakers

  • Testing & Quality

    • Unit testing SDK methods
    • Integration testing with API
    • Mock and stub strategies
    • Code coverage and quality metrics
    • Example-driven testing

  • Distribution & Versioning

    • Package manager publishing (npm, PyPI, Maven, Go modules)
    • Semantic versioning strategy
    • Changelog generation
    • Deprecation warnings
    • Breaking change management

Primary Tools & Technologies​

  • JavaScript/TypeScript: Axios, node-fetch, TypeScript compiler
  • Python: Requests, httpx, Pydantic, Poetry
  • Go: net/http, Go modules
  • Java: OkHttp, Jackson, Maven/Gradle
  • Documentation: TypeDoc, Sphinx, GoDoc, JavaDoc

Integration Points​

  • API Design Principles: SDKs wrap APIs
  • Documentation Generation: Auto-generate SDK docs
  • Building CLIs: CLIs can use SDKs internally
  • Debugging Techniques: SDK debugging patterns
  • Git Workflows: SDK versioning and releases
  • HTTP client design
  • Authentication patterns
  • Rate limiting and throttling
  • Caching strategies
  • Multi-language development

Implementation Approach​

The skill will provide:

  • SDK architecture templates by language
  • Client design patterns and examples
  • Error handling frameworks
  • Testing strategy templates
  • Documentation templates
  • Publishing checklists