# Dredd

> Dredd is a language-agnostic, MIT-licensed command-line tool that validates a running HTTP API against its own API description document. It reads an API Blueprint, OpenAPI 2.0 or (experimentally) OpenAPI 3.0 file, compiles every documented request/response pair into an HTTP transaction, calls the API, and reports where the implementation and the description disagree. Dredd publishes no API of its own — it is a client you install and run.

Generated by API Evangelist on 2026-09-13 from the provider's published documentation and package registries. No /llms.txt is served by dredd.org (probed 2026-09-13, HTTP 404), so this file is generated, not harvested.

## Status — read this first

- The project is ARCHIVED and no longer maintained. github.com/apiaryio/dredd is a read-only archive (last push 2024-05-11), and the whole apiaryio GitHub organization carries the banner "This organization was marked as archived by an administrator on Nov 8, 2024. It is no longer maintained."
- The last published release is dredd@14.1.0, 2021-11-16. The Docker image last moved 2021-06-13. The Python and Ruby hooks handlers last shipped in 2018 and 2016.
- The documentation at dredd.org is still live and still reads as though the project were current; it carries no end-of-life notice. Treat the GitHub archival as the authoritative signal.
- OpenAPI 3.0 support is marked experimental by the provider. OpenAPI 3.1 is not supported and, given the archival, will not be.

## What it does

- [Documentation](https://dredd.org/en/latest/): the full manual, built with Sphinx on Read the Docs.
- [How It Works](https://dredd.org/en/latest/how-it-works/): the execution life cycle, automatic expectations, and the versioning policy.
- [Quickstart](https://dredd.org/en/latest/quickstart/): install, document, implement, test.
- [Command-line Interface](https://dredd.org/en/latest/usage-cli/): arguments, the dredd.yml configuration file, and all 32 documented options.
- [JavaScript API](https://dredd.org/en/latest/usage-js/): running Dredd programmatically via the Dredd class.
- [Hooks](https://dredd.org/en/latest/hooks/): test setup and teardown glue, in Node.js, Ruby, Python, PHP, Perl, Go or Rust.
- [Data Structures](https://dredd.org/en/latest/data-structures/): Transaction, Transaction Test, Transaction Results, Gavel Validation Result, Gavel Error, Test Runtime Error.

## Usage

    dredd '<api-description-document>' '<api-location>' [OPTIONS]
    dredd ./apiary.md http://127.0.0.1:3000
    dredd init          # interactive wizard, writes dredd.yml
    dredd --dry-run     # parse and compile only; issues no HTTP request

## Install

- npm: `npm install dredd --global` — [dredd on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/dredd), latest 14.1.0 (2021-11-16). Node.js >= 10.
- Docker: `docker run -it -v $PWD:/api -w /api apiaryio/dredd dredd` — [apiaryio/dredd on Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/apiaryio/dredd), tags last pushed 2021-06-13. The --server and --language options do not work inside the image.
- [Installation guide](https://dredd.org/en/latest/installation/)

## Supported description formats

- [API Blueprint](https://apiblueprint.org/) — full support, parsed with Drafter; MSON Attributes sections compile to JSON Schema automatically.
- OpenAPI 2.0 (Swagger) — full support, parsed with fury-adapter-swagger.
- OpenAPI 3.0 — experimental, parsed with fury-adapter-oas3-parser.
- JSON Schema Draft 4, Draft 6 and Draft 7 for custom Schema sections. Draft 3 support was removed in 13.0.0 (2020-02-05).

## Packages

- [dredd](https://www.npmjs.com/package/dredd) — the CLI. npm, 14.1.0, 2021-11-16. Official.
- [dredd-transactions](https://www.npmjs.com/package/dredd-transactions) — compiles HTTP transactions from a description document. npm, 10.1.0, 2021-11-16. Official.
- [dredd-hooks-template](https://www.npmjs.com/package/dredd-hooks-template) — conformance suite for building a hooks handler in a new language. npm, 1.1.8, 2019-06-20. Official.
- [dredd_hooks](https://pypi.org/project/dredd_hooks/) — Python hooks handler. PyPI, 0.2.0, 2018-04-09. Official.
- [dredd_hooks](https://rubygems.org/gems/dredd_hooks) — Ruby hooks handler. RubyGems, 0.1.2, 2016-12-30. Official.
- [ddelnano/dredd-hooks-php](https://packagist.org/packages/ddelnano/dredd-hooks-php) — PHP hooks handler. Packagist, 2.0.0, 2020-06-07. Community.
- [dredd-hooks](https://crates.io/crates/dredd-hooks) — Rust hooks handler. crates.io, 0.3.0, 2017-08-02. Community.
- [github.com/snikch/goodman](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/snikch/goodman) — Go hooks handler, untagged. Community.
- [Dredd::Hooks](https://metacpan.org/dist/Dredd-Hooks) — Perl hooks handler. CPAN, 0.03, 2016-02-15. Community.

## Source and history

- [GitHub repository](https://github.com/apiaryio/dredd) — archived, MIT, 4,223 stars, 260 open issues.
- [Changelog / Releases](https://github.com/apiaryio/dredd/releases) — there is no CHANGELOG.md; GitHub Releases is the changelog.
- [Bug tracker](https://github.com/apiaryio/dredd/issues) — read-only; the repository is archived.
- [Contributing guidelines](https://github.com/apiaryio/dredd/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md)
- [License (MIT)](https://github.com/apiaryio/dredd/blob/master/LICENSE)

## API Evangelist artifacts

- [apis.yml](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/dredd/refs/heads/main/apis.yml)
- [Packages](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/dredd/refs/heads/main/packages/dredd-packages.yml)
- [CLI surface](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/dredd/refs/heads/main/cli/dredd-cli.yml)
- [Lifecycle](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/dredd/refs/heads/main/lifecycle/dredd-lifecycle.yml)
- [Changelog](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/dredd/refs/heads/main/changelog/dredd-changelog.yml)
- [Conventions](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/dredd/refs/heads/main/conventions/dredd-conventions.yml)
- [Conformance](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/dredd/refs/heads/main/conformance/dredd-conformance.yml)
- [Well-known probe](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/dredd/refs/heads/main/well-known/dredd-well-known.yml)
- [Domain security](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/dredd/refs/heads/main/security/dredd-domain-security.yml)

## Not present, and why

- No OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, GraphQL, gRPC or WSDL contract: Dredd serves no API. Contract discovery was run against dredd.org and www.dredd.org on 2026-09-13 and every candidate path 404'd.
- No /.well-known/ documents, no A2A agent card, no MCP server, no plans, no rate limits, no sandbox, no trust center and no vulnerability-disclosure program: all probed 2026-09-13, all absent.
- No agent skills: there is no OpenAPI to ground an operationId in, and this pipeline does not invent one.