You need to follow the link https://itsolutionstuff.com/post/codeigniter-3-restful-api-tutorialexample.html
and then after you run the code you will get a small error Unable to load the requested language file: language/english/rest_controller_lang.php
The problem is that codeigniter can't find the rest_controller translations. You just need to create this file /application/languages/english/rest_controller_lang.php
Then copy & paste this code inside:
<?php
/*
* English language
*/
$lang['text_rest_invalid_api_key'] = 'Invalid API key %s'; // %s is the REST API key
$lang['text_rest_invalid_credentials'] = 'Invalid credentials';
$lang['text_rest_ip_denied'] = 'IP denied';
$lang['text_rest_ip_unauthorized'] = 'IP unauthorized';
$lang['text_rest_unauthorized'] = 'Unauthorized';
$lang['text_rest_ajax_only'] = 'Only AJAX requests are allowed';
$lang['text_rest_api_key_unauthorized'] = 'This API key does not have access to the requested controller';
$lang['text_rest_api_key_permissions'] = 'This API key does not have enough permissions';
$lang['text_rest_api_key_time_limit'] = 'This API key has reached the time limit for this method';
$lang['text_rest_ip_address_time_limit'] = 'This IP Address has reached the time limit for this method';
$lang['text_rest_unknown_method'] = 'Unknown method';
$lang['text_rest_unsupported'] = 'Unsupported protocol';
Hope this helps