API governance is often discussed in terms of guidelines and standards. In many organizations, though, it is still too manual, too slow, or simply arbitrary.

In this talk, I will show how to make API governance part of the DevOps process. Using open-source tools and CI/CD pipelines, we can automatically check whether APIs follow company standards, are AI-ready, catch breaking changes early, keep APIs catalogued, and reduce drift between guidelines and what teams actually deliver.

I will also show how to put in place a bare-bones, no-fuss governance setup in just a few hours, one that brings value quickly without becoming a big governance initiative. Finally, I will show how to treat AI agents as first-class citizens, so APIs are designed to be understandable and safe to use not only for developers, but also for agent-based consumers.