diff --git a/src/api.js b/src/api.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 7994d10597..0000000000
--- a/src/api.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,30 +0,0 @@
-import Cookies from 'universal-cookie';
-import superagentPromise from 'superagent-promise';
-import _superagent from 'superagent';
-import qs from 'qs';
-
-const cookies = new Cookies();
-const superagent = superagentPromise(_superagent, global.Promise);
-const responseBody = res => res.body;
-
-const setJwt = () => {
-  const jwt = cookies.get('token');
-  return jwt ? { 'Authorization': `JWT ${jwt}` } : {}
-};
-
-const requests = {
-  get: (url, params) => {
-    const query = qs.stringify(params, { addQueryPrefix: true });
-    return superagent.get(`${url}${query}`).set(setJwt()).then(responseBody);
-  },
-
-  post: (url, body) =>
-    superagent.post(`${url}`, body).set(setJwt()).then(responseBody),
-
-  put: (url, body) =>
-    superagent.put(`${url}`, body).set(setJwt()).then(responseBody)
-};
-
-export default {
-  requests
-};
diff --git a/src/index.js b/src/index.js
index d89a9373ab..d95c30b6b3 100644
--- a/src/index.js
+++ b/src/index.js
@@ -11,16 +11,14 @@ import autopopulate from './plugins/autopopulate';
 import paginate from './plugins/paginate';
 import buildQuery from './plugins/buildQuery';
 import internationalization from './plugins/internationalization';
-import bindModel from './middleware/bindModel';
-import locale from './middleware/locale';
+import { bindModel, locale, checkRole } from './middleware';
 import { query, create, findOne, destroy, update } from './requestHandlers';
 import { schemaBaseFields } from './helpers/mongoose/schemaBaseFields';
 import fieldToSchemaMap from './helpers/mongoose/fieldToSchemaMap';
 import authValidate from './auth/validate';
 import authRequestHandlers from './auth/requestHandlers';
-import middleware from './middleware';
 import passwordResetConfig from './auth/passwordResets/passwordReset.config';
-import passportLocalMongoose from 'passport-local-mongoose';
+import validateConfig from './lib/validateConfig';
 
 class Payload {
 
@@ -70,6 +68,7 @@ class Payload {
     // TODO: Build safe config before initializing models and routes
 
     options.models && options.models.forEach(config => {
+      validateConfig(config, this.models);
       // TODO: consider making schemaBaseFields a mongoose plugin for consistency
       const fields = { ...schemaBaseFields };
 
@@ -118,7 +117,7 @@ class Payload {
         options.config.roles.forEach((role) => {
           options.router
             .route(`/role/${role}`)
-            .get(passport.authenticate(config.auth.strategy, { session: false }), middleware.role(role), auth.me);
+            .get(passport.authenticate(config.auth.strategy, { session: false }), checkRole(role), auth.me);
         });
 
         // password resets
diff --git a/src/lib/validateConfig.js b/src/lib/validateConfig.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e4b4de3adc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/validateConfig.js
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+export default function validateConfig(config, models) {
+  if (models[config.labels.singular]) {
+    throw new Error('Model name "' + config.labels.singular + '" is already in use');
+  }
+  // TODO: Come up with a lot more things to check for and throw errors about
+}
diff --git a/src/middleware/bindModel.js b/src/middleware/bindModel.js
index 5e0ccf4650..3c00661283 100644
--- a/src/middleware/bindModel.js
+++ b/src/middleware/bindModel.js
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@ const bindModel = model => {
     req.model = model;
     next();
   };
-}
+};
 
 export default bindModel;
diff --git a/src/middleware/checkRole.js b/src/middleware/checkRole.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ced3e53453
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/middleware/checkRole.js
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+export default function checkRole(role) {
+  return function (req, res, next) {
+    if (role !== req.user.role) res.status(401).send('Role not authorized.');
+    else next();
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/middleware/index.js b/src/middleware/index.js
index ea5b40944e..8e42bae334 100644
--- a/src/middleware/index.js
+++ b/src/middleware/index.js
@@ -1,7 +1,3 @@
-import role from './role';
-import bindModel from './bindModel';
-
-export default {
-  bindModel,
-  role
-};
+export {default as bindModel} from './bindModel';
+export {default as checkRole} from './checkRole';
+export {default as locale} from './locale';
diff --git a/src/middleware/locale.js b/src/middleware/locale.js
index f7560003ad..798de157b9 100644
--- a/src/middleware/locale.js
+++ b/src/middleware/locale.js
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ import languageParser from 'accept-language-parser';
  * @param localization
  * @returns {Function}
  */
-
 export default function locale(localization) {
   return function (req, res, next) {
     let setLocale;
diff --git a/src/middleware/role.js b/src/middleware/role.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 8fc4f5e0da..0000000000
--- a/src/middleware/role.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-function role(allowedRole) {
-  return function (req, res, next) {
-    if (allowedRole !== req.user.role) res.status(401).send('Role not authorized.');
-    else next();
-  }
-}
-
-export default role;