HTTP Methods

HTTP methods are the verbs. The path is the noun. Together they are an endpoint.

• GET — show me. Nothing should change.
• POST — make one that was not there.
• PUT / PATCH — change one that was.
• DELETE — throw it out.

Devs nickname the set CRUD. You already press these buttons. Refresh a list. Submit a form. Edit a title. Hit trash. The API is the same four moves with fancier names.

The verb that matches the job

Browsers GET when you click a link. Forms POST. Everything else is JavaScript being explicit. Using GET to delete a user is how you bookmark a disaster. A prefetch, a crawler, a curious judge — anyone who opens the URL does the damage.

GET is safe to repeat. Ten reads is ten reads. POST is not. A double-click, a flaky retry, a refresh on "payment processing" can create two charges. That is why checkout pages beg you not to reload.

REST puts those verbs on nouns. The builder will generate routes that already do this. If you invent /api/doThing as a GET, your agent will still call it. The database will still notice.

On stage

If the list is empty, you have a GET problem. If the row never appears, you have a POST problem. Name the verb before you rewrite the stack. A webhook is almost always a POST into a slot you own. Treat it like a create: verify, then write.

What this unlocks

Once you hear "it's a POST," you hear "something new is supposed to exist."

Look, add, change, toss. Four verbs. That is the whole conversation at the window.