NewsLab
Apr 28 23:38 UTC

Why don't AI coding tools like REST? (news.ycombinator.com)

3 points|by sshadmand||3 comments|Read full story on news.ycombinator.com
Is it just me, or do AI coding tools tend to generate RPC-style endpoints and POST methods (even when GET is clearly all that is needed) instead of following RESTful conventions?

Given how advanced these models are, I'm wondering if this is intentional. Is AI saying it has determined that strict REST isn’t a practical standard all around? Or is it just a byproduct of token efficiency or....?

I know I can steer the output with better prompting, but I'm curious whether there's a real underlying reason for this almost all-the-time output.

Comments (3)

3 shown
  1. 1. djyde||context
    What model are you using? I don't think I've encountered it before. But then again, as long as you explicitly instruct an AI to follow REST, it usually will.
  2. 2. gray_wolf_99||context
    I have been using VScode with GitHub AI assistant and I asked the AI many times to set up the REST API it did work
  3. 3. preetigagarwal||context
    REST APIs are deceptively simple on the surface but notoriously inconsistent in practice — different teams implement auth, pagination, and error handling completely differently. AI tools struggle because there's no single 'correct' REST — every API is its own dialect. GraphQL and gRPC have stricter contracts which makes them easier for AI to reason about. The irony is that this inconsistency is also why REST APIs have so many security vulnerabilities — no standard means no standard security either.