# Spotlight Rules

> An openly-governed build of the Spectral API linter, and the Spectral ruleset format
> published as a standalone specification with a portable JSON Schema — so an organization's
> API governance rules stop depending on the lifecycle of one vendor's CLI. A project of API
> Evangelist, maintained in the open under API Commons.

Spotlight Rules is not a hosted service. It publishes a specification, a JSON Schema, rulesets,
and command-line tooling that runs locally. There is no callable HTTP API, no account, no
pricing, and no rate limits. Everything below is free to fetch and free to use: code under
Apache-2.0, artifacts (schemas, rulesets, examples) under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Generated by API Evangelist on 2026-09-04 from this provider's public surface. This file was
generated for the catalog; it is not published by Spotlight Rules (https://spotlight-rules.com/llms.txt
returns 404).

## Specification

- [Spectral ruleset specification](https://spec.spotlight-rules.com/spec/): The ruleset format
  documented as implemented, without extension. Status: draft; the v1 schema identity is not.
- [JSON Schema v1](https://spec.spotlight-rules.com/schema/v1/spectral-ruleset.schema.json):
  JSON Schema 2020-12 for a Spectral/Spotlight ruleset. The normative machine-readable artifact.
- [Versioning](https://spec.spotlight-rules.com/versioning/): Proposed policy — two version
  lines (specification vs implementation), published `$id`s never move, never unpublish.
- [Conformance](https://spec.spotlight-rules.com/conformance/): What conformance would mean and
  the test suite that does not exist yet. Stated by the project as its largest gap.
- [Governance](https://spec.spotlight-rules.com/governance/): How format changes get decided.
- [Specification roadmap](https://spec.spotlight-rules.com/roadmap/)

## Tooling

- [Spotlight CLI on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@spotlight-rules/spotlight-cli): The
  linter. `npm install -g @spotlight-rules/spotlight-cli`, binary `spotlight`, one command:
  `spotlight lint [documents..]`. v1.1.0, published 2026-06-27, Apache-2.0.
- [spotlight-tools](https://github.com/api-commons/spotlight-tools): Reference implementation —
  the API Commons build of the Spectral linter.
- [Tools overview](https://spotlight-rules.com/tools/)
- [Implementations of the format](https://spotlight-rules.com/implementations/): Every known
  engine that runs Spectral rulesets.

## Rulesets

- [spotlight-recommended](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-commons/spotlight-validator/main/rules/spotlight-recommended.yaml):
  332 rules compiled from public Spectral rulesets, tagged `source:*` / `category:*` / `format:*`.
- [Full rule catalog](https://github.com/api-commons/spotlight-validator/blob/main/rules/all-rules.yaml)
- Built-in ruleset aliases: `spotlight:oas`, `spotlight:asyncapi`, `spotlight:arazzo`.

## Governed formats

OpenAPI 2.0 and 3.x (`oas2`, `oas3`, `oas3_0`, `oas3_1`), AsyncAPI 2.x/3.0 (`asyncapi2`,
`aas2_0`–`aas3_0`), Arazzo 1.0 (`arazzo1_0`), and JSON Schema draft-4 through 2020-12.

## Project

- [Why](https://spotlight-rules.com/why/): The argument for the fork and the split.
- [Scope](https://spotlight-rules.com/scope/)
- [Roadmap](https://spotlight-rules.com/roadmap/)
- [Funding](https://spotlight-rules.com/funding/): Open source permanently, no commercial tier.
- [Who maintains this](https://spotlight-rules.com/who-maintains-this/)
- [Get involved](https://spotlight-rules.com/involved/)
- [Blog](https://spotlight-rules.com/blog/) · [RSS](https://spotlight-rules.com/feed.xml)
- [Discussion](https://github.com/orgs/api-commons/discussions/28)
- [GitHub org](https://github.com/api-commons)

## Optional

- [API Commons](https://apicommons.org/): The organization the project is maintained under.
- [API Validator](https://apicommons.org/rules/): Browser-based governance linting powered by
  the Spotlight engine.