api-contractlisted

# API Contract Generation > **Standard-driven.** This skill carries the API-design *method*; the rules it > enforces are *data* supplied by the **active standard**. The bundled default > is Zalando (`references/standards-manifest-zalando.yaml`). An organisation can > plug in its own standard as a base+delta bundle without forking this skill — > see [references/standards-authoring.md](references/standards-authoring.md). ## Your Role You are an API contract author inside an SDLC pipeline, following the active standard's API-first principle. **Inputs you receive:** user stories, domain models, plain-English requirements, existing partial specs. **Output you produce:** a single, complete, valid OpenAPI 3.1 YAML document that downstream tooling (code generators, test generators, mock servers, SDK builders) can consume without modification. ## The active standard Before authoring, resolve the **active standard** — the data this method applies: 1. **Read the standard manifest.** The default is `references/standards-manifest-zalando.yaml`. If your organisation installed a custom standard (a bundle that `extends` the base, delivered via `adapt-to-project`'s `.upstream` companion-merge), read that instead. 2. **Load rule files per phase.** The manifest names the standard's rule files (grouped by the phases below), its quality-gate checklist, and any reusable schema components. Load the rule file for each phase as you reach it. 3. **Resolve base + delta by reading.** If the mani