API governance plays a crucial role in maintaining consistency, security, and quality in enterprise API programs, but it can be challenging to enforce across distributed organizations with growing teams and APIs. While some organizations rely on guidelines, these often result in optional practices rather than consistent enforcement. The OpenAPI Specification (OAS) offers a machine-readable format that enhances API governance by streamlining design reviews, automating compliance checks, and fostering continuous improvement. OpenAPI acts as a single source of truth, facilitating collaboration among stakeholders and aligning APIs with enterprise standards. Automating governance through linting workflows helps enforce naming conventions, security requirements, and documentation standards, reducing manual review efforts and catching errors early. Tools like Spectral and OpenAPI Validator support linting by validating API documents against custom rules. Early and collaborative design reviews, supported by OpenAPI, prevent poor design choices and align stakeholders before coding begins, reducing technical debt and rework. Moreover, these reviews offer opportunities for coaching and improvement, helping organizations cultivate a culture of high-quality API design. By integrating OpenAPI into the development lifecycle, organizations can enforce standards efficiently, reduce rework, and improve API quality through a combination of automation and human collaboration.