Keep Building: Why Governance Shouldn't Slow You Down

Most governance tools are speed bumps. They block PRs, require manual approvals, and make developers route around them. The result: shadow APIs, skipped checks, and governance that exists on paper but not in practice.

Delimit is a guardrail, not a speed bump. It tells you what changed, how severe it is, and what to do about it — without stopping you from shipping.

Three presets, zero config

Every team has a different tolerance for risk. Delimit ships three policy presets so you can match governance to your stage.

# Start relaxed — see what gets caught
- uses: delimit-ai/delimit-action@v1
  with:
    spec: api/openapi.yaml
    preset: relaxed

# Default — breaking changes block, non-breaking warn
- uses: delimit-ai/delimit-action@v1
  with:
    spec: api/openapi.yaml

# Strict — every change requires review
- uses: delimit-ai/delimit-action@v1
  with:
    spec: api/openapi.yaml
    preset: strict

Advisory first, enforce later

The adoption path that works: start in advisory mode. Delimit comments on your PRs with what it found, but CI always passes. Your team builds intuition for what breaking changes look like. When you're ready, flip to enforce mode and CI gates on breaking changes.

No big bang rollout. No all-hands meeting about the new governance tool. Just gradually tightening the guardrails as your team gets comfortable.

Custom policies when you need them

Presets cover most cases. When they don't, write a YAML policy file:

# .delimit/policies.yml
rules:
  - paths: ["/api/v1/**"]
    severity: error    # V1 is frozen — all changes break
  - paths: ["/api/v2/**"]
    severity: warning  # V2 is in development — warn only
  - paths: ["/internal/**"]
    severity: ignore   # Internal APIs — no governance

The philosophy

Governance should adapt to your team, not the other way around. Start relaxed. Tighten when ready. Customize when needed. The goal is not to block developers — it's to make sure breaking changes are intentional, not accidental.

Install Delimit. Ship with confidence. Keep building.