What does an API governance and design review process look like at scale?

API governance ensures consistency, stability, and quality across all APIs in an organization. The process starts with an API design guide — a document codifying naming conventions, versioning policies, error formats, pagination patterns, authentication standards, and deprecation lifecycle. New APIs go through an API design review (sometimes called an API council) before implementation: the schema is reviewed for consistency with existing APIs, naming correctness, security implications, and forward compatibility. Linting tools like Spectral automate style enforcement by running rules against the OpenAPI spec in CI — failing pipelines if conventions are violated. A schema registry (e.g., Stoplight, SwaggerHub) stores all API specifications with version history. Breaking change detection runs in CI using tools like openapi-diff or Optic. Usage analytics from the API gateway track which endpoints, fields, and versions clients use, informing deprecation decisions. The goal is a consistent developer experience across all APIs in the organization regardless of which team built them.