Expert guidance on setting up and using Retrofit for type-safe HTTP networking in Android. Covers service definitions, coroutines, OkHttp configuration, and Hilt integration.
npx skills add https://github.com/new-silvermoon/awesome-android-agent-skills --skill android-retrofit
When implementing network layers using Retrofit, follow these modern Android best practices (2025).
Retrofit allows dynamic URL updates through replacement blocks and query parameters.
{name} in the relative URL and @Path("name") in parameters.@Query("key") for individual parameters.@QueryMap Map<String, String> for dynamic sets of parameters.interface SearchService {
@GET("group/{id}/users")
suspend fun groupList(
@Path("id") groupId: Int,
@Query("sort") sort: String?,
@QueryMap options: Map<String, String> = emptyMap()
): List<User>
}
You can send objects as JSON bodies or use form-encoded/multipart formats.
application/x-www-form-urlencoded. Use @Field.multipart/form-data. Use @Part.interface UserService {
@POST("users/new")
suspend fun createUser(@Body user: User): User
@FormUrlEncoded
@POST("user/edit")
suspend fun updateUser(
@Field("first_name") first: String,
@Field("last_name") last: String
): User
@Multipart
@PUT("user/photo")
suspend fun uploadPhoto(
@Part("description") description: RequestBody,
@Part photo: MultipartBody.Part
): User
}
Headers can be set statically for a method or dynamically via parameters.
@Headers.@Header.@HeaderMap.interface WidgetService {
@Headers("Cache-Control: max-age=640000")
@GET("widget/list")
suspend fun widgetList(): List<Widget>
@GET("user")
suspend fun getUser(@Header("Authorization") token: String): User
}
When using suspend functions, you have two choices for return types:
User): Returns the deserialized body. Throws HttpException for non-2xx responses.Response<User>: Provides access to the status code, headers, and error body. Does NOT throw on non-2xx results.@GET("users")
suspend fun getUsers(): List<User> // Throws on error
@GET("users")
suspend fun getUsersResponse(): Response<List<User>> // Manual check
Provide your Retrofit instances as singletons in a Hilt module.
@Module
@InstallIn(SingletonComponent::class)
object NetworkModule {
@Provides
@Singleton
fun provideJson(): Json = Json {
ignoreUnknownKeys = true
coerceInputValues = true
}
@Provides
@Singleton
fun provideOkHttpClient(): OkHttpClient = OkHttpClient.Builder()
.addInterceptor(HttpLoggingInterceptor().apply { level = HttpLoggingInterceptor.Level.BODY })
.connectTimeout(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
.build()
@Provides
@Singleton
fun provideRetrofit(okHttpClient: OkHttpClient, json: Json): Retrofit = Retrofit.Builder()
.baseUrl("https://api.github.com/")
.client(okHttpClient)
.addConverterFactory(json.asConverterFactory("application/json".toMediaType()))
.build()
}
Always handle network exceptions in the Repository layer to keep the UI state clean.
class GitHubRepository @Inject constructor(private val service: GitHubService) {
suspend fun getRepos(username: String): Result<List<Repo>> = runCatching {
// Direct body call throws HttpException on 4xx/5xx
service.listRepos(username)
}.onFailure { exception ->
// Handle specific exceptions like UnknownHostException or SocketTimeoutException
}
}
suspend functions for all network calls.Response<T> if you need to handle specific status codes (e.g., 401 Unauthorized).@Path and @Query instead of manual string concatenation for URLs.OkHttpClient with logging (for debug) and sensible timeouts.Integration with protocols.io API for managing scientific protocols. This skill should be used when working with protocols.io to search, create, update, or publish protocols; manage protocol steps and materials; handle discussions and comments; organize workspaces; upload and manage files; or integrate protocols.io functionality into workflows. Applicable for protocol discovery, collaborative protocol development, experiment tracking, lab protocol management, and scientific documentation.
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Build and distribute Expo development clients locally or via TestFlight
Use when you have a written implementation plan to execute in a separate session with review checkpoints
Data structure for annotated matrices in single-cell analysis. Use when working with .h5ad files or integrating with the scverse ecosystem. This is the data format skill—for analysis workflows use scanpy; for probabilistic models use scvi-tools; for population-scale queries use cellxgene-census.
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Take new-silvermoon/android-retrofit from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.