Skills Development Lucidchart API Development Patterns

Lucidchart API Development Patterns

v20260423
lucidchart-sdk-patterns
A comprehensive set of structured patterns for integrating with the Lucidchart REST API. These patterns handle complex requirements such as OAuth 2.0 token lifecycle management, mandatory API version negotiation, deep shape tree structures, and robust error handling for concurrency issues (e.g., document locking, rate limiting). Includes utilities for building type-safe queries and mocking test scenarios.
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Overview

Lucidchart SDK Patterns

Overview

Lucid's REST API uses OAuth 2.0 with versioned Lucid-Api-Version headers to manage documents, pages, shapes, data-linked fields, and collaborative comments. A structured SDK client is essential because the API requires version negotiation on every request, returns deeply nested shape tree hierarchies, and enforces document-level locking for concurrent edits. These patterns provide OAuth token lifecycle management, typed shape and document models, fluent query building for filtered shape searches, and mock factories for diagramming test scenarios.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 18+, TypeScript 5+
  • LUCID_CLIENT_ID and LUCID_CLIENT_SECRET environment variables (OAuth 2.0 app credentials)
  • LUCID_ACCESS_TOKEN or refresh token flow for per-user access
  • axios or node-fetch for HTTP transport

Singleton Client

interface LucidConfig {
  clientId: string;
  clientSecret: string;
  accessToken: string;
  apiVersion?: string;
  baseUrl?: string;
}

let client: LucidClient | null = null;

export function getLucidClient(overrides?: Partial<LucidConfig>): LucidClient {
  if (!client) {
    const config: LucidConfig = {
      clientId: process.env.LUCID_CLIENT_ID ?? '',
      clientSecret: process.env.LUCID_CLIENT_SECRET ?? '',
      accessToken: process.env.LUCID_ACCESS_TOKEN ?? '',
      apiVersion: '2',
      baseUrl: 'https://api.lucid.co',
      ...overrides,
    };
    if (!config.accessToken) throw new Error('LUCID_ACCESS_TOKEN is required');
    client = new LucidClient(config);
  }
  return client;
}

Error Wrapper

interface LucidApiError { status: number; errorCode: string; message: string; documentId?: string; }

async function safeLucid<T>(fn: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
  try { return await fn(); }
  catch (err: any) {
    const parsed: LucidApiError = {
      status: err.response?.status ?? 500,
      errorCode: err.response?.data?.errorCode ?? 'INTERNAL',
      message: err.response?.data?.message ?? err.message,
      documentId: err.response?.data?.documentId,
    };
    if (parsed.status === 429) {
      const wait = parseInt(err.response?.headers?.['x-ratelimit-reset'] ?? '10', 10);
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, wait * 1000));
      return fn();
    }
    if (parsed.errorCode === 'DOCUMENT_LOCKED') throw new Error(`Document ${parsed.documentId} is locked by another editor`);
    if (parsed.status === 403) throw new Error(`Insufficient permissions: ${parsed.message}`);
    throw new Error(`Lucid ${parsed.errorCode} (${parsed.status}): ${parsed.message}`);
  }
}

Request Builder

class ShapeQueryBuilder {
  private params: Record<string, string> = {};
  inDocument(docId: string) { this.params.documentId = docId; return this; }
  onPage(pageId: string) { this.params.pageId = pageId; return this; }
  ofType(shapeType: string) { this.params.className = shapeType; return this; }
  withDataField(key: string, value: string) { this.params[`data.${key}`] = value; return this; }
  limit(n: number) { this.params.limit = String(Math.min(n, 200)); return this; }
  offset(n: number) { this.params.offset = String(n); return this; }
  build(): URLSearchParams { return new URLSearchParams(this.params); }
}

Response Types

interface LucidDocument { id: string; title: string; editUrl: string; pageCount: number; lastModified: string; owner: string; }
interface LucidPage { id: string; title: string; index: number; width: number; height: number; }
interface LucidShape { id: string; className: string; boundingBox: { x: number; y: number; w: number; h: number }; text: string; dataFields: Record<string, string>; }
interface LucidComment { id: string; author: string; body: string; shapeId?: string; resolved: boolean; createdAt: string; }

Middleware Pattern

type Middleware = (req: RequestInit, next: () => Promise<Response>) => Promise<Response>;

const versionMiddleware: Middleware = (req, next) => {
  req.headers = { ...req.headers as Record<string, string>, 'Lucid-Api-Version': '2' };
  return next();
};
const oauthRefreshMiddleware = (refreshToken: string): Middleware => async (req, next) => {
  const res = await next();
  if (res.status === 401) {
    const tokens = await refreshOAuthToken(refreshToken);
    (req.headers as Record<string, string>).Authorization = `Bearer ${tokens.access_token}`;
    return next();
  }
  return res;
};

Testing Utilities

function mockDocument(overrides?: Partial<LucidDocument>): LucidDocument {
  return { id: 'doc_abc123', title: 'Architecture Diagram', editUrl: 'https://lucid.app/documents/edit/doc_abc123', pageCount: 3, lastModified: '2025-06-01T12:00:00Z', owner: 'user@example.com', ...overrides };
}
function mockShape(overrides?: Partial<LucidShape>): LucidShape {
  return { id: 'shape_001', className: 'ProcessBlock', boundingBox: { x: 100, y: 50, w: 200, h: 100 }, text: 'API Gateway', dataFields: {}, ...overrides };
}
function mockComment(shapeId: string): LucidComment {
  return { id: 'cmt_xyz', author: 'reviewer@example.com', body: 'Needs error path', shapeId, resolved: false, createdAt: '2025-06-02T09:00:00Z' };
}

Error Handling

Pattern When to Use Example
Version negotiation API returns 400 on outdated version header Catch version mismatch, retry with server-suggested version
Document lock retry 409 DOCUMENT_LOCKED during shape updates Exponential backoff up to 3 retries, then surface to user
OAuth token refresh 401 on any endpoint Use refresh token middleware, update stored access token
Permission escalation 403 on shared document operations Check document sharing settings before write operations
Shape tree validation Creating shapes with invalid parent references Validate page and container IDs exist before shape POST

Resources

Next Steps

Apply in lucidchart-core-workflow-a.

Info
Category Development
Name lucidchart-sdk-patterns
Version v20260423
Size 6.22KB
Updated At 2026-04-28
Language