Data contracts serve as a crucial mechanism for ensuring data quality and consistency within modern data architectures by defining clear specifications for data elements such as tables, schemas, and values. They address the challenges of fragmented ownership, fragile data stacks, and immature change management practices, which often lead to unexpected data changes and broken dashboards. By implementing data contracts, organizations can enhance collaboration, maintain data integrity, and ensure mission-critical data remains reliable. The process involves defining and maintaining contracts over time and enforcing them during changes, ideally through a structured change management process like pull requests. Foundational offers a pragmatic approach by leveraging existing data stacks to automate and manage data contracts, allowing teams to understand the impact of changes and maintain productivity without fundamentally altering development processes.