JSON Best Practices for APIs

Consistent JSON design makes APIs easier to consume and maintain. Follow these conventions for cleaner integrations.

Naming and Structure

Use camelCase or snake_case consistently — never mix. Keep nesting shallow (2-3 levels max). Use arrays for lists, objects for entities. Avoid deeply nested structures that are hard to query and document.

Null and Error Handling

Be explicit about null vs missing fields. Return structured error objects: {"error": {"code": "INVALID_INPUT", "message": "..."}}. Include error codes for programmatic handling.

Validation

Validate JSON before deployment. Use schema validation (JSON Schema) in CI pipelines. WaiHub's JSON Formatter helps catch syntax errors during development.