The Modern .NET Show

Designing APIs Like a Pro: Lessons from Jerry Nixon on Data API Builder and Beyond

11 snips
Oct 10, 2025
Jerry Nixon, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft focused on Azure SQL and developer tooling, and lead on Data API Builder. He discusses simple, pragmatic API design and when to choose GraphQL versus REST. He explains the difference between app APIs and data APIs, designing for maintainers, stateless scalability, caching and queues, and how Data API Builder exposes databases via REST/GraphQL.
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INSIGHT

Data APIs Are Automatable Repetitive Surface Areas

  • Distinguish generic app APIs from data APIs: data APIs are repetitive, low-business-logic endpoints that often deserve automation.
  • Automating data APIs reduces copy-paste code and maintenance overhead because they mainly map directly to database operations.
ADVICE

Defer Expensive Choices And Defend Simplicity

  • Defer expensive architectural decisions and favor simplicity; design to allow future patterns like CQRS without committing early.
  • The architect's role is to resist premature choices so you can add complexity only when required and feasible.
ADVICE

Ship A Local JWT Service For Precise Authorization

  • Add a custom JWT service inside your app for detailed claims-based authorization rather than stuffing all app logic into the identity tenant.
  • Validate upstream tokens, then enrich and re-sign claims locally so authorization is fine-grained and manageable.
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