[aldarn]

Indeed you need a client that is capable of mapping allowed methods and links to something useful, but it's not hard to imagine how one might go about this:

* For related resources (imagine a DB FK), instead of listing a uuid you point a link to the location of that resource. This means if the resource location changes the client doesn't need to be updated, it just uses whatever the new link is.

* Methods listed can drive available actions, e.g. imagine you have both mutable and immutable objects, a smart client could reason if PATCH is available then a UI element can be spawned allowing the user to modify this resource.

This is useful in a single client scenario whereby the API schema can be modified to a certain extent without the need to modify the client. It is also useful in a multi-client scenario (either distinct or versioned clients) for ensuring consistency between clients as you no longer need to ensure all clients are modified to use the new schema.

At least, this is how I understood it, I haven't tried it in practice.