API Governance MCP

A Model Context Protocol server that lets any AI client lint your API artifacts against a best-of-breed API governance ruleset — so an agent can check your OpenAPI (3.x and Swagger 2.0), AsyncAPI, Arazzo, APIs.json, JSON Schema, MCP, and more, conversationally, and tell you what to fix.

Powered by Spectral. It runs the same engine and the same compiled ruleset (rules/all-rules.yaml) as the API Commons API Validator — the browser tool — here server-side over stdio. The ruleset is compiled from public Spectral rulesets and the API Evangelist governance rules: 769 rules across 12 artifact formats, of which the openapi group is 462 rules. Every rule ships at info to educate; raise individual rules to warn/error with a custom ruleset for what you choose to enforce.

Swagger 2.0 at parity with OpenAPI 3.x. The openapi catalog governs swagger: "2.0" documents exactly as it governs openapi: 3.x — Spectral auto-detects each document's format and runs the matching rules (twins and format-gating mean nothing false-positives across versions). The server maps the swagger format synonym to openapi, so a client can say either.

Tools

Tool	What it does
lint_artifact	Lint an artifact (content, optional format, optional custom ruleset) → findings (code, message, severity, path) + counts
list_rulesets	The artifact formats it governs and, per format, the rules it applies
list_formats	The artifact formats the ruleset can lint
describe_rule	Look a finding's code up → title, description, severity, tags, target path, and a remediation prompt
validate_ruleset	Structurally validate a custom Spectral ruleset before you lint with it
request_review	Get a ready-to-send email to engage API Evangelist for expert governance services

Formats

openapi · asyncapi · arazzo · apis-json · jsonschema · json-structure · json-ld · mcp · plans · rate-limits · finops · agent-skill

The openapi format covers both Swagger 2.0 and OpenAPI 3.x (say swagger or openapi). The openapi and asyncapi rulesets also extend the recommended Spectral engine rules; every other format is linted entirely by its curated rules.

Use it

npm install
npm start          # speaks MCP over stdio

Claude Desktop / any MCP client

Add to your client's MCP server config (e.g. Claude Desktop claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "api-governance": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@api-common/api-governance-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Then ask: "Lint this OpenAPI for governance issues and tell me what to fix."

Part of the API Commons tools

Browser-first, backend-free tools for the APIs you produce and consume — API Discovery, API Documentation, API Validator, API Reusability, and MCP Install. This is the AI surface of the API Validator: the same Spectral governance, exposed to any agent over MCP. See them all at apicommons.org/tools.

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A project of API Evangelist, maintained openly under API Commons. The tooling is open and free to run yourself; API Evangelist offers the expert governance services around it. Apache-2.0.

Governance guidance — the human why behind this tool: MCP at guidance.apievangelist.com.