web dev//API//REST

REST is the API style built on HTTP verbs and URL patterns, and the most common way to structure a web API.

REST is the API style built on HTTP verbs and URL patterns, and the most common way to structure a web API.

The URL identifies the resource and the verb says what to do with it, which keeps the API clean, predictable and stateless.

GET /contactsReturns the contacts

POST /contactsCreates a new one

GET /contacts/123Returns this specific one

PUT /contacts/123Replaces this one entirely

PATCH /contacts/123Updates some fields

DELETE /contacts/123Deletes this one

Supabase creates REST endpoints automatically from a project's tables: once a table is defined, GET /rest/v1/contacts already works with no backend code, and the SDK wraps these endpoints into typed functions. REST is the default; the alternatives are GraphQL (one endpoint, flexible queries), WebSockets (real-time, bidirectional) and RPC (function calls rather than resources).