diff --git a/library/Director/RestApi/RequestHandler.php b/library/Director/RestApi/RequestHandler.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..46dcb94d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/library/Director/RestApi/RequestHandler.php
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Icinga\Module\Director\RestApi;
+
+use Exception;
+use Icinga\Module\Director\Db;
+use Icinga\Web\Request;
+use Icinga\Web\Response;
+
+abstract class RequestHandler
+{
+    /** @var Request */
+    protected $request;
+
+    /** @var Response */
+    protected $response;
+
+    /** @var Db */
+    protected $db;
+
+    public function __construct(Request $request, Response $response, Db $db)
+    {
+        $this->request = $request;
+        $this->response = $response;
+        $this->db = $db;
+    }
+
+    abstract protected function processApiRequest();
+
+    public function dispatch()
+    {
+        $this->processApiRequest();
+    }
+
+    protected function sendJson($object)
+    {
+        $this->response->setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json', true);
+        echo json_encode($object, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT) . "\n";
+    }
+
+    protected function sendJsonError($error, $code = null)
+    {
+        $response = $this->response;
+        if ($code === null) {
+            if ($response->getHttpResponseCode() === 200) {
+                $response->setHttpResponseCode(500);
+            }
+        } else {
+            $response->setHttpResponseCode((int) $code);
+        }
+
+        if ($error instanceof Exception) {
+            $message = $error->getMessage();
+        } else {
+            $message = $error;
+        }
+
+        $this->sendJson((object) ['error' => $message]);
+    }
+
+    // TODO: just return json_last_error_msg() for PHP >= 5.5.0
+    protected function getLastJsonError()
+    {
+        switch (json_last_error()) {
+            case JSON_ERROR_DEPTH:
+                return 'The maximum stack depth has been exceeded';
+            case JSON_ERROR_CTRL_CHAR:
+                return 'Control character error, possibly incorrectly encoded';
+            case JSON_ERROR_STATE_MISMATCH:
+                return 'Invalid or malformed JSON';
+            case JSON_ERROR_SYNTAX:
+                return 'Syntax error';
+            case JSON_ERROR_UTF8:
+                return 'Malformed UTF-8 characters, possibly incorrectly encoded';
+            default:
+                return 'An error occured when parsing a JSON string';
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/library/Director/Web/Controller/Extension/RestApi.php b/library/Director/Web/Controller/Extension/RestApi.php
index 07006c4b..f0595597 100644
--- a/library/Director/Web/Controller/Extension/RestApi.php
+++ b/library/Director/Web/Controller/Extension/RestApi.php
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ namespace Icinga\Module\Director\Web\Controller\Extension;
 
 use Icinga\Exception\AuthenticationException;
 use Icinga\Exception\NotFoundError;
-use Icinga\Module\Director\Controllers\ServicetemplatesController;
 use Icinga\Web\Response;
 
 trait RestApi