I'm often asked about what Redocly is doing for Arazzo.
Even more so, after Lorna's blog post about [Arazzo linting](/blog/arazzo-linting).
This blog post summarizes our current and future plans.

## The background…

When Lorna joined Redocly, we discussed the OpenAPI community and she introduced me to the SIG-Workflows group.
Intrigued, I shared the link with Roman Hotsiy (our CTO).
We were surprised.
We had created a similar specification internally.

Why?
We developed a tool that does E2E API contract testing (I named it "Spot" as in "Spot problems before they stain").

**Spot is Respect**

Spot was renamed to Respect to stick with the "Re" naming convention.

For the tool to work, we needed to connect an OpenAPI document to a workflow to describe a sequence of requests.
Otherwise, sending requests to all operations is unlikely to be successful.

Rather than work on a closed specification, we decided to fully digest the Arazzo Specification and make contributions based on our _super-secret_ (~Spot~ Respect) tool.
This decision has led to visible contributions from myself, Roman, and Dmytro to the Arazzo Specification, which was officially released two months ago.

## Data dependencies are productivity killers

Many API operations have data dependencies.
Data dependencies can be a pain to document.
Oftentimes, I think "domain experts" are people who understand the data dependencies between resources and
corresponding operations.

Ultimately, Arazzo is a mechanism for sharing domain knowledge.

This is why I believe Arazzo is the **most important specification released** since founding Redocly almost 7 years ago.

## Roadmap

This following list is how we think about the tools and uses of Arazzo.

This list is not the exact sequence in which we are executing them.

**Create and edit the Arazzo Description**

1. [Linter](../docs/cli/guides/lint-arazzo) (so someone can write or edit in IDE and get feedback if it is correct) -- ✅ DONE
2. Configurable rules (so someone can write their own standards for enforcing consistency in Arazzo Document design) --  ✅ DONE
3. Visual tool (Replay) to generate an Arazzo Description, so the user doesn't need to learn the spec and write in IDE -- 🚧 IN PROGRESS
4. Visual tool (Replay) to import an Arazzo Description -- 🚧 IN PROGRESS

**Uses of the Arazzo Description**

1. Visualize Arazzo into docs (_learn by reading_) -- ❌ NOT STARTED
2. Human exploration of workflows using our Replay try it console (_learn by doing_) -- 🚧 IN PROGRESS
3. Automated E2E test sequences following workflows (we have a tool named ~**Spot**~ **Respect**) --  ✅ DONE
4. Generate integration/workflow code examples -- ❌ NOT STARTED

**Learn Arazzo**

We launched a [learning center for Arazzo](/learn/arazzo/what-is-arazzo).

## Chip in

Interested in one of those items?
[Let us know how you'd like to help](/contact-us), and you might influence the priority of our roadmap.

Have ideas? Want to join the team? Check out our [careers page](/careers) for open positions. We're hiring developers, product designers, and more!