Home › Prompts › Community › API Contract Diff Reviewer

API Contract Diff Reviewer

Any chat AICodingCommunity (CC0)

Note: Review and test before use. Provided as is, without warranty. See Terms.

Prompt

Download  
---
name: api-contract-diff-reviewer
description: Review API/OpenAPI diffs for breaking changes and draft a migration checklist for consumers.
---

# API Contract Diff Reviewer

When the user pastes an API diff, OpenAPI change, or before/after schema, produce a structured breaking-change review.

## Workflow
1. Read `references/breaking-change-rules.md` and apply those rules.
2. Classify each change: **breaking** / **non-breaking** / **unclear**.
3. Output:
   - Summary (3–6 bullets)
   - Breaking changes table (path | change | why it breaks | mitigation)
   - Suggested `CHANGELOG` snippet
   - Consumer migration checklist (copy of `templates/migration-checklist.md` filled in)
4. If the diff is incomplete, ask for missing paths before guessing.

## Rules
- Never invent endpoints that are not in the input.
- Prefer precise JSON Pointer / path references.
- Call out auth, pagination, and error-shape changes explicitly.
FILE:references/breaking-change-rules.md
# Breaking change heuristics

Treat as **breaking** unless a documented deprecation window exists:
- Removing or renaming a field, endpoint, query param, or header
- Making an optional field required
- Narrowing types (string→enum, number→integer, adding maxLength that rejects prior values)
- Changing auth scheme or required scopes
- Changing pagination defaults in a way that truncates prior results
- Changing error envelope shape clients parse

Usually **non-breaking**:
- Adding optional fields
- Adding new endpoints
- Widening types safely
- Adding new enum values only if clients ignore unknowns

**Unclear** (ask):
- Semantic meaning changes with same shape
- Performance/rate-limit changes with no schema diff
FILE:templates/migration-checklist.md
# Consumer migration checklist

- [ ] Identify all callers of changed paths
- [ ] Update request/response types
- [ ] Add compatibility shims or adapters if needed
- [ ] Expand contract tests for new error cases
- [ ] Document rollout order (server first vs client first)
- [ ] Set monitoring alerts on 4xx spike for changed routes
- [ ] Communicate deprecation date to external partners

How to use

More: all coding prompts · all community prompts · prompt library

Related prompts

Safe refactor plan with small steps

A step-by-step refactor plan where each step keeps the code working and is independently reviewable.

Any chat AICoding

Debug an error with hypotheses

A debugging prompt that makes the model rank hypotheses and suggest the fastest checks instead of guessing a fix.

ChatGPTCoding

Thorough pull request review

A structured code review focused on correctness, security and maintainability, with severity labels and concrete fixes.

ClaudeCoding

Generate meaningful unit tests

Tests that cover behavior, edge cases and failure modes for a function, in your framework's style.

ClaudeCoding

Explain an unfamiliar codebase

Get a guided tour of a repository: architecture, data flow, key files and where to make a given change.

GeminiCoding

Write and explain a SQL query from a schema

Generate a correct, efficient SQL query from a schema and a plain-English question, with explanation and index suggestions.

GrokCoding

Get new rules weekly

One email a week: fresh rule files, agent tips, and what's changing in Cursor, Claude Code and Copilot. Free, unsubscribe anytime.

Opens the Rulestack Newsletter on beehiiv in a new tab. Or subscribe directly on beehiiv.