There are two APIs you can use to interact with data in the Hypermedia network.

Regardless of how you get access to Hypermedia data, you might want to validate it to ensure the integrity. A full node will always validate it, while a light node can validate as much as it wants to.

Some data in the system is self-validating- when the signer matches the address of the Entity. But you will often need to find Capabilities that supports the integrity of the content.

There are many important mechanisms for data validation: format compliance, signature validation, and capability checking.