# Examples Of The OpenAPI Specification Used For Government APIs

**Canonical:** https://apievangelist.com/2017/06/07/examples-of-the-openapi-specification-used-for-government-apis/

<p>I was answering some questions for <a href="http://apis.how/bgdteovduo">my partners over at DreamFactory</a> when it comes to APIs in government, and one of the questions they asked was about some examples of the <a href="https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification">OpenAPI specification</a> being used in government. To help out, I started going through  my list of government API looking for any examples in the wild–here is what I found:

<ul>
  <li>
    <p><a href="https://api.open.fec.gov/developers/">Federal Election Commission</a> (FEC) (<a href="https://api.open.fec.gov/swagger/">OpenAPI</a>)
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><a href="https://gsa.github.io/sam_api/sam/console/">System for Award Management</a> (<a href="https://gsa.github.io/sam_api/static/api_docs/api_docs.json">SAM</a>) (OpenAPI)
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><a href="https://usdigitalregistry.digitalgov.gov/">US Digital Registry</a> (<a href="https://api.gsa.gov/systems/digital-registry/v1/swagger_docs/api-docs.json">OpenAPI</a>)
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><a href="https://micropurchase.18f.gov/api">18F Open Source Micro Purchasing API</a> (<a href="https://micropurchase.18f.gov/api/v0/swagger.json">OpenAPI</a>)
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><a href="https://api.nasa.gov/api.html#NeoWS">NASA</a> (Couldn’t find OpenAPI in less than 30 seconds)
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><a href="https://qpp.cms.gov/api/">Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS) API for Quality Payment Program Measures</a> (<a href="https://qpp.cms.gov/api/api-docs.json">OpenAPI</a>)
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><a href="https://developer.nrel.gov/docs/transportation/transportation-incentives-laws-v1/">National Renewal Energy Labratory Transportation Laws and Incentives API</a> (<a href="https://developer.nrel.gov/docs/transportation/transportation-incentives-laws-v1/api-docs.json">OpenAPI</a>)
  </li>
</ul>

<p>I am sure there are more OpenAPI in use across government, but this is what I could find in a five-minute search of my API database. It provides us with seven quality examples of OpenAPI being used for documenting government APIs. I don’t see the OpenAPI used for much beyond documentation, but it is still a good start.

<p>If you know of any government APIs that use OpenAPI feel free to let me know. I’d love to keep adding examples to my research so I can pull up quickly when I am asked questions like this in the future, and be able to highlight best practices for API operations in city, county, state, and federal levels of government.