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API Pagination

secondsky/api-pagination

Implements efficient API pagination using offset, cursor, and keyset strategies for large datasets. Use when building paginated endpoints, implementing infinite scroll, or optimizing database queries for collections.

This is a copy. The original lives at comeonoliver/api-pagination.

530 tokens
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the whole folder, loaded on every use
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instructions only
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copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
202
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository 
npx skills add https://github.com/secondsky/claude-skills --skill api-pagination

The instruction itself

6 sections, as written by the author

API Pagination

Implement scalable pagination strategies for handling large datasets efficiently.

Pagination Strategies

| Strategy | Best For | Performance |

|----------|----------|-------------|

| Offset/Limit | Small datasets, simple UI | O(n) |

| Cursor | Infinite scroll, real-time | O(1) |

| Keyset | Large datasets | O(1) |

Offset Pagination

app.get('/products', async (req, res) => {
  const page = parseInt(req.query.page) || 1;
  const limit = Math.min(parseInt(req.query.limit) || 20, 100);
  const offset = (page - 1) * limit;

  const [products, total] = await Promise.all([
    Product.find().skip(offset).limit(limit),
    Product.countDocuments()
  ]);

  res.json({
    data: products,
    pagination: {
      page,
      limit,
      total,
      totalPages: Math.ceil(total / limit)
    }
  });
});

Cursor Pagination

app.get('/posts', async (req, res) => {
  const limit = 20;
  const cursor = req.query.cursor;

  const query = cursor
    ? { _id: { $gt: Buffer.from(cursor, 'base64').toString() } }
    : {};

  const posts = await Post.find(query).limit(limit + 1);
  const hasMore = posts.length > limit;
  if (hasMore) posts.pop();

  res.json({
    data: posts,
    nextCursor: hasMore ? Buffer.from(posts[posts.length - 1]._id).toString('base64') : null
  });
});

Response Format

{
  "data": [...],
  "pagination": {
    "page": 2,
    "limit": 20,
    "total": 150,
    "totalPages": 8
  },
  "links": {
    "first": "/api/products?page=1",
    "prev": "/api/products?page=1",
    "next": "/api/products?page=3",
    "last": "/api/products?page=8"
  }
}

Best Practices

  • Set reasonable max limits (e.g., 100)
  • Use cursor pagination for large datasets
  • Index sorting fields
  • Avoid COUNT queries when possible
  • Never allow unlimited page sizes

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take secondsky/api-pagination from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

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.