Specmatic Vocabulary

vocabulary:
  name: Specmatic Vocabulary
  description: >-
    Domain vocabulary for Specmatic, an AI-powered API contract testing and
    service virtualization platform supporting contract-driven development
    across REST, gRPC, GraphQL, Kafka, and other protocols.
  created: '2026-05-02'
  modified: '2026-05-02'

  terms:
    - term: Contract
      definition: >-
        An API specification (OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, gRPC proto, GraphQL schema,
        WSDL) used as an executable agreement between API producer and consumer.
      related:
        - API Specification
        - Contract Testing
        - Contract-Driven Development

    - term: Contract Testing
      definition: >-
        A testing approach where both the API provider and consumer verify their
        implementations against a shared contract (specification), eliminating
        integration surprises.
      related:
        - Contract
        - Consumer-Driven Contract Testing
        - Provider Contract Testing

    - term: Contract-Driven Development (CDD)
      definition: >-
        A development methodology in which API contracts (specifications) are
        defined first and used to drive parallel development of producers and
        consumers before integration occurs.
      related:
        - Contract
        - Service Virtualization
        - API-First

    - term: Service Virtualization
      definition: >-
        The simulation of dependent API services using their specifications,
        allowing teams to develop and test without access to real downstream
        services.
      related:
        - API Mocking
        - Stub
        - Contract

    - term: Stub
      definition: >-
        A simulated API endpoint that returns specification-compliant responses,
        generated automatically from an API contract.
      related:
        - Service Virtualization
        - API Mocking

    - term: Backward Compatibility
      definition: >-
        A property of an API change where existing consumers continue to work
        correctly after the change. Specmatic detects breaking changes between
        two specification versions automatically.
      related:
        - Breaking Change
        - Contract
        - API Versioning

    - term: Breaking Change
      definition: >-
        A change to an API specification that causes existing consumers to fail,
        such as removing a required field, changing a data type, or deleting
        an endpoint.
      related:
        - Backward Compatibility
        - Contract

    - term: API Coverage
      definition: >-
        A metric measuring how much of an API specification is exercised by
        actual traffic or tests, used to detect spec-implementation drift.
      related:
        - Contract Drift
        - Contract Testing

    - term: Contract Drift
      definition: >-
        The divergence between an API specification and its actual implementation
        over time, leading to undocumented behaviors and integration failures.
      related:
        - API Coverage
        - Contract Testing

    - term: Proxy Mode
      definition: >-
        A Specmatic operating mode that intercepts real API traffic to record
        interactions and generate or validate specification files automatically.
      related:
        - Traffic Recording
        - Spec Generation

    - term: Genie
      definition: >-
        Specmatic's AI product that generates API specifications and MCP servers
        from plain English descriptions.
      related:
        - AI-Powered
        - Spec Generation
        - MCP

    - term: Studio
      definition: >-
        Specmatic's visual interface for designing API workflows and running
        contract tests without writing code.
      related:
        - No-Code
        - Contract Testing

    - term: Insights
      definition: >-
        Specmatic's governance product providing API ecosystem dependency
        tracking, compliance monitoring, and coverage reporting.
      related:
        - API Governance
        - API Coverage
        - Compliance

    - term: MCP (Model Context Protocol)
      definition: >-
        An AI agent communication protocol supported by Specmatic for stubbing
        and testing AI model context servers.
      related:
        - Genie
        - AI-Powered

    - term: JDBC Stubbing
      definition: >-
        A Specmatic feature that simulates database connections for testing
        purposes, removing the need for a real database in contract tests.
      related:
        - Service Virtualization
        - Stub

    - term: Resiliency Testing
      definition: >-
        Testing that verifies an API consumer handles error responses and edge
        cases correctly, automatically generated from the API contract.
      related:
        - Contract Testing
        - API Testing

  tags:
    - API Contract Testing
    - API Governance
    - API Mocking
    - Backward Compatibility
    - Contract-Driven Development
    - Service Virtualization
    - OpenAPI
    - AsyncAPI
    - gRPC
    - GraphQL
    - Kafka
    - CI/CD Integration