The Gateway Margin: Why API Governance Becomes a Retainer Line, Not a Build Task

Every integration an agency ships becomes a live liability the moment it touches a client's payment rails, CRM, or an LLM. Agencies that treat API governance as a delivery phase rather than a handoff artifact convert that liability into recurring revenue; those that don't absorb the cost as unbilled maintenance. The current shift toward agent traffic, where inbound MCP servers and outbound model calls both need authentication and spend caps, makes the governance layer harder to skip and easier to price.