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Glossary

Terms used across Speccy and OpenAPI documentation.

A

API (Application Programming Interface)
A contract that lets software systems communicate through defined operations and data formats.
Related terms: API reference, OpenAPI
API reference
Documentation organized around an API's operations, inputs, responses, schemas, and reusable components.
Related terms: API, OpenAPI

B

Breaking change
A change to an API contract that can make an existing client integration stop working or behave differently.
Related terms: OpenAPI, Spectral

J

JSON Schema
A vocabulary for describing and validating JSON data. OpenAPI 3.1 aligns its Schema Object with JSON Schema 2020-12.
Related terms: OpenAPI, Schema

O

OpenAPI
A machine-readable standard for describing HTTP APIs, including their operations, parameters, request bodies, responses, and schemas.
Operation
One HTTP method on an API path, such as GET /books. An operation defines its parameters, request body, responses, and metadata.
Related terms: OpenAPI, Schema

S

Schema
A description of the structure, types, and validation rules for data used by an API.
Related terms: JSON Schema, OpenAPI
Spectral
An open source linter for JSON and YAML documents. Speccy uses Spectral rules to report OpenAPI quality and consistency problems.
Related terms: Breaking change, OpenAPI
Swagger
The former name of the OpenAPI Specification. Swagger 2.0 documents are still common and are supported by Speccy.
Related terms: OpenAPI

Total terms: 9