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published: true
layout: post
title: API Evangelist Conversation with Dave Shanley About Why Vacuum Improves Upon Spectral
tags:
  - Specifications
  - OpenAPI
  - Rules
  - Spectral
  - Vacuum
image: >-
  https://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/algorotoscope-master/john-wayne-the-searchers-mining-mountains-2.jpeg
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  We have been wanting to sit down with Dave Shanley for a while now, but we needed to spend more time with [Vaccuum](https://bit.ly/3WDnhej) to understand where it would fit into our world view of API governance. We finally did proper research and readingw, and theneb got to sit down with Dave Shanley, CEO of [Princess Beef Heavy Industries](https://bit.ly/3WCMa9M), and creator of Vacuum, [OpenAPI Doctor](https://bit.ly/3UTwuOF), and other important OpenAPI tooling. We were able to finally got the full background of why he felt [Spectral](https://bit.ly/3Q0yku9) was falling short when it came to linting our API specifications, and it was much more than just about speed. We left our conversation with a head full of ideas and a bunch of notes on what is next for API governance and rules, and need to have Dave back talk about OpenAPI Doctor, libopenapi, and his other great work.

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Vacuum represents the front line of API governance, crafting the rules you need to produce the API governance coverage you need across API operations. Speccy evolved into Spectral, and now Vacuum augments Spectral, but refactors what is possible for the future in ways we'll write about in future posts. My conversation with Dave is one of those conversation I will be writing numerous posts about for days to come and look back in a year or two and remember it as being a seismic shift in the overall API governance conversation. A couple of decisions I heard Dave had made during our conversation signal for me a required shift in not just the technology at this layer, but the business and politics of it, which are needed to take us into the future. But, more to come on that later. We'll have Dave back to talk OpenAPI Doctor, [libopenapi](https://bit.ly/4hAxBf2), and more. Good stuff. Thanks for coming by Dave.