---
published: true
layout: post
title: Schema Work is the Most Stabilizing API Work
tags:
  - Schema
  - JSON Schema
  - JSON
  - YAML
image: >-
  https://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/algorotoscope-master/green-circuit-city-clouds-waterfront.jpg
---
Stop what you are doing for a moment. Close your eyes and think about how much schema is around you in your API work. Every API you produce and consume has a schema for the API, but also consumes schema as part of requests and returns schema for each API response. Schema makes up everything around you. It is what defines and validates all of the digital bits you need to get work done. When it comes to API governance it is important to always start teams out with the fundamentals of schema, focusing on how these elements are shaping our world whether we are aware or not.

- **Usage** - JSON Schema is already in use across the enterprise, it just isn’t being used well.
- **Specifications** - Understanding the relationship between OpenAPI and JSON Schema.
- **Metadata** - The human-readable bits that make schema discoverable and reusable.
- **Properties** - Being as precise as possible with the structure of the digital objects in use.
- **Validation** - Consistent validation of schema from design through to production.

Consistent awareness and usage of the latest draft of JSON Schema across teams will be the most stabilizing thing any enterprise can do when it comes to API operations. Without schema education, awareness, and adoption, API governance will struggle at scale across the enterprise. You can learn more about schema during an upcoming talk at Tyk’s Leap 2.0 API governance virtual conference this Thursday, but you can also get the deeper dive on schema and why it matters to API governance every Tuesday at 1:00 PM during our recurring API Knowledge Builder sessions.