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Clean Web API
Lean Mean Clean Apps

Five templates, one search box. Everything in the docs is in here, including the bits we hoped you'd skim.

Try one of these

Results say which template they came from, so you won't end up reading about Lambda when you wanted GraphQL. Again.

A Lean Mean Clean Apps template for .NET 10

Clean Architecture for Web API controllers, minus the ceremony.

A .NET 10 template that gives you a tested, layered HTTP API in two commands. For people who like their endpoints with classes and attributes.

Get startedView on GitHub
dotnet new install CleanWebApi.Template
dotnet new cleanwebapi --name Acme.Movies --authorName "Your Name"
cd Acme.Movies && docker compose up -d

Three layers, the tests, a Dockerfile and a CI pipeline. Go and tell your team you've been working on it all week.

What’s in the box

Section titled “What’s in the box”

Controllers on a diet

Controllers grouped by feature and kept thin by Mediator. The business rules live in Application, where they belong, not in an action method.

Docs that write themselves

OpenAPI comes from the XML comments you were going to write anyway, and Scalar turns it into an API reference you can actually click around in.

Errors with manners

Validation lives in the Application layer with FluentValidation, and every failure comes back as Problem Details (RFC 9457). No mystery 500s.

Tested like it matters

xUnit, Shouldly and a 95% coverage gate. Every test gets its own throwaway SQLite database, so nobody steps on anybody’s toes.

Run it

Section titled “Run it”
Terminal window
cd Acme.Movies
docker compose up -d

Then open the Scalar API reference at http://localhost:8080/scalar and start poking. The logs go to Seq at http://localhost:5341, because Console.WriteLine is not an observability strategy.

Want it locked down? Pass --authority and --audience when you create the solution and every movie, author and review endpoint needs a JWT bearer token. Leave them off and it runs wide open, which is lovely on a laptop and less lovely in production.

Get startedInstall the template, create a solution and call your first endpoint.
Add an endpointTurn an existing query into a new endpoint, with docs and a test.
Endpoint referenceEvery route, parameter, response and error.
Why it's built this wayThe opinions, so you can disagree with them on purpose.

One of five

Section titled “One of five”

Clean Web API is one of five Lean Mean Clean Apps templates. They share the same Application and Infrastructure layers, the same tests and the same pipeline. Only Presentation changes. Like a family, really. Same genes, different haircuts.

Clean Minimal APIASP.NET Core Minimal APIsClean Model Context ProtocolModel Context Protocol serversClean GraphQL APIGraphQL on Hot ChocolateClean Web APIASP.NET Core Web APIsClean Lambda FunctionAWS Lambda

Each template gets the same ring logo in its own colour. The rings follow the Clean Architecture diagram, from the entities in the core out to the frameworks and drivers on the edge. Web API drew blue, the colour of every enterprise dashboard it will one day feed. The logos, colours and everything else live in the brand kit.

Part of Lean Mean Clean Apps

Made by the Lean Mean Clean Apps team with Clean Architecture, strong coffee and a healthy disregard for pomp and ceremony. Not affiliated with Microsoft, AWS, Uncle Bob or anyone with a marketing budget.