Certification program for OAS consuming implementations

Some organizations considering adoption of OpenAPI have asked what assurances we can offer with regard to interoperability.

• They want to see evidence that the OpenAPI specification itself is mature enough, and well-enough specified, that tools and libraries can be tested for conformance.
• They want to see a commitment to interop and specification conformance on the part of OAI as an organization.
• When considering adoption of specific tools, they want some objective evidence that those tools conform to the OpenAPI specification.

This issue builds on some early discussions in OAI/OpenAPI-Specification#1520, which was originally scoped to defining a format for the rules and test cases that comprise a test suite. That is one aspect of the program.

This issue is about the first phase of the overall certification program. The TSC has agreed that this first phase should focus on OpenAPI consumers, i.e. implementations that take an OpenAPI document as an input.

Start by reading the discussion referenced in OAI/OpenAPI-Specification#1520 and the four comments on this issue. The payload identifies the first phase as certification for OpenAPI consumers, but does not name files, tests, certification criteria, or an implementation entry point. Done would require an agreed program scope and concrete next steps.