  TAP, the Table Access Protocol, is a widely used Virtual Observatory
specification allowing client software to interact with remote database
services in a standardised way. This paper presents taplint, a tool for
assessing the compliance of deployed TAP services with the the dozen or so
formal specifications that form the TAP protocol stack. We provide an overview
of its capabilities and operation, and the context within which it is used to
improve robustness of data services.
