Guide Outlines Safe Ways to Connect AI Agents to Existing APIs

A DEV Community article argues that AI agents should be treated as untrusted users, with the model proposing tool calls while application code authorises and executes them. It recommends first inventorying an API's auth, rate limits, and side effects, then choosing an integration pattern such as direct function calling, a gateway, or MCP based on control needs. Tool design should favour narrow, well-named actions with small toolsets, and agents should use their own short-lived, task-scoped credentials with permissions enforced in code rather than prompts. The piece also advises classifying errors, using idempotency keys for writes to prevent duplicate charges, and rolling out agents in stages with approval for consequential actions.