path-declaration-must-exist

Requires at least one API path and disallows empty {} path parameters.

Attribute	Value
Category	Operations
Maturity	Baseline
OpenAPI	Swagger 2.0; OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, 3.2
Starter	Warning
Lenient–Complete	Error

Intent

An API contract needs an addressable operation surface, and every templated segment needs a parameter name.

Flags

• A document with no parsed path entries.
• Every path string containing the exact text {}.

Does not flag

A document with at least one path and no empty parameter declaration. Whether a path item contains an HTTP operation is outside this rule.

See it fail

paths:
  /payments/{}:
    get:
      responses:
        '200': {description: OK}

Diagnostic: Path parameter declarations must be non-empty. `{}` is invalid.

Fix it

paths:
  /payments/{paymentId}:
    get:
      responses:
        '200': {description: OK}

Also define the matching path parameter; path-parameters-defined checks that requirement.

Configure

profiles:
  default:
    rules:
      extends: [recommended]
      override:
        path-declaration-must-exist: warn

Nearby: path-parameters-defined, no-ambiguous-paths.