Wicked Garden Engineering Backend

Backend Skill

Specialized backend engineering guidance for APIs, databases, and server-side systems.

When to Use

• Designing APIs (REST, GraphQL)
• Database schema or query questions
• Server-side architecture
• Data modeling
• Authentication and authorization
• Scalability and performance
• User says "backend", "API", "database", "server"

Key Focus Areas

API Design

• RESTful conventions (resources, methods, status codes)
• GraphQL schema design
• API versioning strategies
• Request/response validation
• Error handling and messaging
• Pagination and filtering
• Rate limiting

Database Patterns

• Schema design and normalization
• Indexing strategies
• Query optimization
• Transaction management
• Connection pooling
• Migration best practices
• N+1 query prevention

Data Modeling

• Entity definition
• Relationship modeling (1:1, 1:N, N:M)
• Data types and constraints
• Validation rules
• Audit trails

Authentication & Authorization

• Password hashing (bcrypt, argon2)
• JWT or session management
• OAuth2 / OIDC patterns
• RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)
• API key management

Performance & Scalability

• Query optimization and EXPLAIN plans
• Caching strategies (Redis, memcached)
• Background jobs (Celery, Bull)
• Database read replicas
• Horizontal scaling

Integration Patterns

• External API resilience (retry, timeout, circuit breaker)
• Webhook handling with retry
• Message queue patterns
• Idempotency for critical operations

Review Process

Use comprehensive checklists for:

• API quality (REST conventions, validation, versioning)
• Database quality (schema, indexes, transactions)
• Security (auth, validation, injection prevention)

See [refs/checklists.md](refs/checklists.md) for detailed checklists, anti-patterns, and output templates.

Code Patterns

Common backend patterns for:

• API endpoints with auth and validation
• Query optimization and N+1 prevention
• Authentication and authorization
• External API integration with resilience
• Caching strategies

See [refs/patterns.md](refs/patterns.md) for code examples and best practices.

Notes

• Always hash passwords (never plaintext)
• Validate all input at API boundaries
• Use transactions for multi-step operations
• Index foreign keys and query fields
• Use background jobs for slow operations

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: mikeparcewski
• Source: mikeparcewski/wicked-garden
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://wg.wickedagile.com/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.