alt Hacker NewsA response code of 204 seems more appropriate but the problem is you're not allowed to send further information, which would make that descriptive response... not descriptive enough.
Replies
IgorPartola • today at 4:05 AM
I think of it like this:
/users/ returns a 404 in an API means that this resource does not exist. As in, this is not a part of the API.
/users/123 returns a 404 means this user record does not exist.
Yes this means that a 404 is context dependent but in a way that makes it easier for a human to think of and reason about.
Code 204 is just code 200 with the "yes the body really is zero bytes this is not an error it's supposed to be like this" bit set.