feat(skills): add api-testing skill for REST/GraphQL debugging by eren-karakus0 · Pull Request #1800 · NousResearch/hermes-agent

eren-karakus0 · 2026-03-17T19:11:00Z

Summary

Adds a new api-testing skill under skills/software-development/. Comprehensive but operational: a single-skill runbook that supports both 5-minute triage and deep API incident debugging without adding new tools or dependencies.

Single file, no code changes: skills/software-development/api-testing/SKILL.md

What's included

Section	Purpose
5-Minute Quickstart	REST, GraphQL, Python requests — get going fast
Systematic Debug Flow	7-step layered diagnosis: connectivity → timeouts → TLS → auth → request format → response parse → semantics
HTTP Status Playbook	Actionable steps for 401/403/404/409/422/429/5xx
Content-Type Mismatch	`json=` vs `data=`, Accept header, multipart gotchas
GraphQL 200+errors	"Always check `errors` field regardless of status code"
Contract Validation	Response schema checking to catch drift early
Correlation IDs	`X-Request-Id` / `X-Trace-Id` capture + provider bug report template
Pagination & Idempotency	Offset vs cursor, idempotency key pattern
Regression Test Template	pytest + requests smoke test scaffold for CI
Security	Token redaction, safe logging, sensitive data leak checklist
Hermes Integration	terminal, execute_code, delegate_task examples

Why this skill

No existing skill covers API debugging/testing directly
Broad use case: every integration, webhook, and external API call benefits
Zero dependency — works with curl, Python requests, and Hermes built-in tools
Follows repo conventions: frontmatter, related_skills linking, Hermes tool examples

Test plan

Valid YAML frontmatter with name, description, version, tags, related_skills
All code examples are syntactically correct (curl, Python)
Security: all examples use <REDACTED> for tokens, no partial leaks
JWT decode handles base64url padding correctly
No new files outside skills/software-development/api-testing/

Add a runbook-style skill for systematic API testing and debugging. Covers both quick triage (5-minute quickstart) and deep incident debugging (6-step layered flow + HTTP status playbooks). No new tools or dependencies — guidance only via SKILL.md. Key sections: - REST + GraphQL quickstart with 200+errors awareness - Systematic debug flow: connectivity → timeouts → TLS → auth → request format (Content-Type mismatch) → response → semantics - HTTP status playbook (401/403/404/409/422/429/5xx) - Contract validation, correlation IDs, regression test template - Security: token redaction, sensitive data leak checklist

nidhishgajjar · 2026-04-15T16:56:48Z

Orb Code Review (powered by GLM 5.1 on Orb Cloud)

Summary

Adds a new api-testing skill — a 603-line Markdown runbook for systematic REST/GraphQL debugging. Covers quickstart, layered diagnosis, HTTP status playbooks, GraphQL pitfalls, contract validation, security, and Hermes integration examples. Single file, no code changes.

Architecture

Fits cleanly into the existing skills/software-development/ directory. Frontmatter matches the convention used by systematic-debugging and other sibling skills (name, description, version, author, license, metadata with tags and related_skills). The related_skills correctly cross-references systematic-debugging and test-driven-development.

Issues

No issues found. The skill is well-structured:

Security: All examples use $TOKEN, <REDACTED>, or env var references — no hardcoded secrets. The sk-... reference at line 465 is a placeholder, not a real key.
Correctness: JWT base64url padding fix (p+='='*(-len(p)%4)) is correct. GraphQL 200+errors caveat is important and well-documented.
Practicality: The 7-step debug flow (connectivity → timeouts → TLS → auth → request format → response parse → semantics) is a solid mental model.
Integration: Hermes tool examples (terminal, execute_code, delegate_task) are idiomatic.

Suggestion (not blocking): At 603 lines, this is a substantial document. Consider whether the regression test template (pytest scaffold) and pagination sections could be separate, smaller skills to keep this one focused on debugging. But as a single-skill runbook, it works well.

Cross-file impact

None. This is a single new file in skills/software-development/api-testing/SKILL.md.

Assessment

approve ✅ — Well-written, security-conscious, follows repo conventions. Useful addition to the skills library.

nidhishgajjar · 2026-04-15T16:57:07Z

Orb Code Review (powered by GLM 5.1 on Orb Cloud)

Summary

Adds a new api-testing skill — a 603-line Markdown runbook for systematic REST/GraphQL debugging. Covers quickstart, layered diagnosis, HTTP status playbooks, GraphQL pitfalls, contract validation, security, and Hermes integration examples. Single file, no code changes.

Architecture

Fits cleanly into the existing skills/software-development/ directory. Frontmatter matches the convention used by systematic-debugging and other sibling skills (name, description, version, author, license, metadata with tags and related_skills). The related_skills correctly cross-references systematic-debugging and test-driven-development.

Issues

No issues found. The skill is well-structured:

Security: All examples use $TOKEN, <REDACTED>, or env var references — no hardcoded secrets. The sk-... reference at line 465 is a placeholder, not a real key.
Correctness: JWT base64url padding fix (p+='='*(-len(p)%4)) is correct. GraphQL 200+errors caveat is important and well-documented.
Practicality: The 7-step debug flow (connectivity → timeouts → TLS → auth → request format → response parse → semantics) is a solid mental model.
Integration: Hermes tool examples (terminal, execute_code, delegate_task) are idiomatic.

Suggestion (not blocking): At 603 lines, this is a substantial document. Consider whether the regression test template (pytest scaffold) and pagination sections could be separate, smaller skills to keep this one focused on debugging. But as a single-skill runbook, it works well.

Cross-file impact

None. This is a single new file in skills/software-development/api-testing/SKILL.md.

Assessment

approve ✅ — Well-written, security-conscious, follows repo conventions. Useful addition to the skills library.

Adds optional-skills/software-development/api-testing/SKILL.md — a single-file runbook for systematic REST/GraphQL API debugging via Hermes tools (terminal, execute_code, web_extract, delegate_task). - 60-char description; gated to platforms: [linux, macos] - Layered debug flow (connectivity → TLS → auth → format → parse → semantics) - HTTP status playbook (401/403/404/409/422/429/5xx) - Pagination, idempotency, contract validation, correlation IDs - pytest smoke template, token-redaction patterns, leak checklist - Hermes tool patterns replace generic curl/python examples Lands in optional-skills/ (not always-active skills/) so it's installed via hermes skills install official/software-development/api-testing. scripts/release.py: AUTHOR_MAP entry for erenkar950@gmail.com → eren-karakus0. Closes #1800. Co-authored-by: Teknium <127238744+teknium1@users.noreply.github.com>

teknium1 · 2026-05-11T05:11:48Z

Salvaged via PR #23582 — your skill content was moved to optional-skills/software-development/api-testing/ and rewritten to use Hermes tools (terminal, execute_code, web_extract, delegate_task) throughout. Frontmatter tightened to a 60-char description matching the rest of skills/software-development/. Your authorship is preserved on the salvage commit (4c57a5b). AUTHOR_MAP got your email mapping too. Thanks for the contribution!

Adds optional-skills/software-development/api-testing/SKILL.md — a single-file runbook for systematic REST/GraphQL API debugging via Hermes tools (terminal, execute_code, web_extract, delegate_task). - 60-char description; gated to platforms: [linux, macos] - Layered debug flow (connectivity → TLS → auth → format → parse → semantics) - HTTP status playbook (401/403/404/409/422/429/5xx) - Pagination, idempotency, contract validation, correlation IDs - pytest smoke template, token-redaction patterns, leak checklist - Hermes tool patterns replace generic curl/python examples Lands in optional-skills/ (not always-active skills/) so it's installed via hermes skills install official/software-development/api-testing. scripts/release.py: AUTHOR_MAP entry for erenkar950@gmail.com → eren-karakus0. Closes NousResearch#1800. Co-authored-by: Teknium <127238744+teknium1@users.noreply.github.com>

alt-glitch added type/feature New feature or request P3 Low — cosmetic, nice to have tool/skills Skills system (list, view, manage) labels May 3, 2026

teknium1 mentioned this pull request May 11, 2026

feat(skills): add api-testing optional skill (salvages #1800) #23582

Merged

teknium1 closed this in #23582 May 11, 2026

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feat(skills): add api-testing skill for REST/GraphQL debugging#1800

feat(skills): add api-testing skill for REST/GraphQL debugging#1800
eren-karakus0 wants to merge 1 commit into
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eren-karakus0:feat/api-testing-skill

eren-karakus0 commented Mar 17, 2026

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nidhishgajjar commented Apr 15, 2026

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nidhishgajjar commented Apr 15, 2026

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teknium1 commented May 11, 2026

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eren-karakus0 commented Mar 17, 2026

Summary

What's included

Why this skill

Test plan

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nidhishgajjar commented Apr 15, 2026

Summary

Architecture

Issues

Cross-file impact

Assessment

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nidhishgajjar commented Apr 15, 2026

Summary

Architecture

Issues

Cross-file impact

Assessment

Uh oh!

teknium1 commented May 11, 2026

Uh oh!

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4 participants