--- title: The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Contract Quality | daily.dev description: Part two of a nine-part series on the Kin Score explains the Contract Quality facet, which weighs 25% of the composite score across 42 checks (211 points)... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-contract-quality-rpcg8n7gy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Contract Quality | daily.dev og:description: Part two of a nine-part series on the Kin Score explains the Contract Quality facet, which weighs 25% of the composite score across 42 checks (211 points)... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-contract-quality-rpcg8n7gy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/rpCG8N7gY.png og:image:alt: The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Contract Quality og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Contract Quality **[API Evangelist](https://daily.dev/sources/apievangelist)** · 6 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Part two of a nine-part series on the Kin Score explains the Contract Quality facet, which weighs 25% of the composite score across 42 checks (211 points) covering OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, GraphQL, FHIR, JSON Schema and JSON-LD artifacts. Key checks include publishing a machine-readable contract (20 points, the largest single award), format-specific presence, OpenAPI craft (summaries, descriptions, unique operationIds, 4xx schemas, examples), resolvable servers, and current security schemes. Across 27,274 scored providers, the mean sub-score is 16.2 and median is 0.0, with 64.5% scoring exactly zero and only 21 providers (0.1%) at 75+; New Relic leads at 80.6. The 0.23 'London' release changed how unmarked contracts are graded: previously full credit, now capped at 90% unless the provider adds provenance markers (method, publisher, source), which explains why the top-end count dropped from 188 to 21. Stripe and Segment both score similarly on this facet despite different actual provenance because neither marks authorship. The piece closes with concrete steps: publish a contract, mark authorship, fill in operation metadata, document failure paths, and clean up security and server configs. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What changed in Kin Score version 0.23 regarding unmarked OpenAPI contracts? Since version 0.23 (the London release), an OpenAPI or JSON Schema document with no authorship marker now receives only 90% credit instead of full credit as before. Providers regain the missing 10% by adding a method (declared, authored, published, or self-reported), a publisher, and a resolvable source field, proving the contract's provenance. _Teams tracking API tooling changes like this follow scoring and spec updates on daily.dev._ ### What is the single highest-value check in the Kin Score contract quality rubric? Publishing a machine-readable contract is worth 20 points, the largest single award in the Contract Quality facet's 211-point, 42-check rubric. Accepted formats include OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, a GraphQL SDL, or a FHIR CapabilityStatement, since SDK generation, mocking, and agent tool-calling all depend on that artifact existing. _Developers deciding how to prioritize API documentation work can find related standards coverage on daily.dev._ ### How many API providers scored zero on the Kin Score contract quality facet? Of 27,274 providers scored, 17,597 (64.5%) scored exactly zero on the Contract Quality facet, meaning no readable machine-readable contract was found for them. The mean sub-score across the catalog is 16.2 and the median is 0.0, while only 21 providers (0.1%) scored 75 or above, with New Relic leading at 80.6. _Anyone benchmarking API maturity across providers can track scoring data like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Contract Governance](https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-contract-governance-rspejujou) · API Evangelist · 4 upvotes · 1 comments - [The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Operational Transparency](https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-operational-transparency-8pkaa1nlz) · API Evangelist · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Developer Ergonomics](https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-developer-ergonomics-ayvojluy4) · API Evangelist · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Open Source Surface](https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-open-source-surface-upga4qw7r) · API Evangelist · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Discoverability](https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-discoverability-u3iqbmapb) · API Evangelist · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#graphql](https://daily.dev/tags/graphql), [#openapi](https://daily.dev/tags/openapi) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-contract-quality-rpcg8n7gy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Contract Quality","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-contract-quality-rpcg8n7gy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-contract-quality-rpcg8n7gy"},"datePublished":"2026-09-30T12:42:41.534Z","dateModified":"2026-09-30T12:43:07.626Z","description":"Part two of a nine-part series on the Kin Score explains the Contract Quality facet, which weighs 25% of the composite score across 42 checks (211 points)...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2b3506412e2c92842e5fd8460d4c2cc5?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2b3506412e2c92842e5fd8460d4c2cc5?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"API Evangelist","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"API Evangelist","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/a36244ae67bc4f41a605f780267ecb5f","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/apievangelist"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-contract-quality-rpcg8n7gy","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"architecture,graphql,openapi","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"API Evangelist","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/apievangelist"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Kin Score, Facet By Facet: Contract Quality"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-kin-score-facet-by-facet-contract-quality-rpcg8n7gy#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What changed in Kin Score version 0.23 regarding unmarked OpenAPI contracts?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Since version 0.23 (the London release), an OpenAPI or JSON Schema document with no authorship marker now receives only 90% credit instead of full credit as before. 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