OpenAPI descriptions are often incomplete or outdated, which makes API drift a common problem. Over time, descriptions and implementations diverge, leading to broken integrations and frustrated consumers.

In this talk, we explore how schema-based contract testing helps detect and prevent API drift early, drawing on real-world experience. After a brief introduction on API testing and a comparison of different contract testing approaches, I’ll demonstrate how to implement schema-based contract testing with Portman.

Portman is an open source tool that injects contract and variation tests into API collections with minimal configurations in JSON or YAML. The advantages of schema-based contract testing are clear: It’s easy to learn, easy to control, and comes with low maintenance overhead. However, schema-based contract testing is not a silver bullet, so knowing its limits is key.

You’ll leave with best practices, common pitfalls, and a clear path to getting started with schema-based contract testing, including the knowledge to decide when this approach is the right fit.