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title: API Clients with Refit in .NET | daily.dev
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# API Clients with Refit in .NET

**[NikolaTech](https://daily.dev/sources/nikolatech)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Refit is a type-safe REST library for .NET inspired by Retrofit that lets developers define HTTP API clients as interfaces instead of managing HttpClient directly. The walkthrough covers installing the Refit NuGet package, registering a client via AddRefitClient with dependency injection, and defining methods with Get, Post, Put, Delete, Patch, and Head attributes. It also shows query parameters with AliasAs, request bodies with the Body attribute, custom headers (global, per-method, and dynamic), and error handling using ApiException, ApiResponse<T>, or raw HttpResponseMessage.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://nikolatech.net/blogs/refit-dotnet-api-client>

## Questions this post answers

### How do I handle errors with Refit without wrapping every call in try-catch?

Use the ApiResponse<T> wrapper type as the return type of a Refit interface method instead of the raw response type. By default, Refit throws an ApiException when an API call fails, but returning Task<ApiResponse<T>> lets you inspect the status and error information directly without exception handling in every method.

_daily.dev surfaces practical patterns like this for developers building resilient API clients in .NET._

### How do I add a custom header to a Refit API call in .NET?

Apply the Headers attribute either on the interface (applies to all methods), on an individual method, or use the Header attribute on a method parameter for headers whose value is only known at runtime, such as [Header("DynamicHeader")] string header. This gives flexibility between static, shared headers and per-request dynamic values.

_developers wiring up external services can find more .NET API client techniques on daily.dev._

### How do I define query parameters in a Refit interface when the parameter name doesn't match the API?

Use the AliasAs attribute on the method parameter to map a differently named C# parameter to the expected query string key, for example [AliasAs("itemsPerPage")] int perPage while the route uses /products with page and itemsPerPage query parameters. This keeps method signatures readable while matching the external API's naming.

_daily.dev helps .NET developers keep up with library-specific tricks like Refit's query parameter mapping._

## Similar posts on daily.dev

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---

Tags: [#.net](https://daily.dev/tags/.net), [#c#](https://daily.dev/tags/c#)

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