diff --git a/commands/apps.go b/commands/apps.go
index fa3f3e190..32eccbdfd 100644
--- a/commands/apps.go
+++ b/commands/apps.go
@@ -704,9 +704,9 @@ Optionally, pass a deployment ID to get the spec of that specific deployment.`,
 	AddStringFlag(getCmd, doctl.ArgAppDeployment, "", "", "optional: a deployment ID")
 	AddStringFlag(getCmd, doctl.ArgFormat, "", "yaml", `the format to output the spec in; either "yaml" or "json"`)
 
-	validateCmd := CmdBuilder(cmd, RunAppsSpecValidate, "validate <spec file>", "Validate an application spec", `Use this command to check whether a given app spec (YAML or JSON) is valid.
+	validateCmd := cmdBuilderWithInit(cmd, RunAppsSpecValidate, "validate <spec file>", "Validate an application spec", `Use this command to check whether a given app spec (YAML or JSON) is valid.
 
-You may pass - as the filename to read from stdin.`, Writer)
+You may pass - as the filename to read from stdin.`, Writer, false)
 	AddBoolFlag(validateCmd, doctl.ArgSchemaOnly, "", false, "Only validate the spec schema and not the correctness of the spec.")
 
 	return cmd
@@ -762,6 +762,7 @@ func RunAppsSpecGet(c *CmdConfig) error {
 }
 
 // RunAppsSpecValidate validates an app spec file
+// doesn't require auth & connection to the API with doctl.ArgSchemaOnly flag
 func RunAppsSpecValidate(c *CmdConfig) error {
 	if len(c.Args) < 1 {
 		return doctl.NewMissingArgsErr(c.NS)
@@ -778,6 +779,7 @@ func RunAppsSpecValidate(c *CmdConfig) error {
 		return err
 	}
 
+	// validate schema only (offline)
 	if schemaOnly {
 		ymlSpec, err := yaml.Marshal(appSpec)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -787,6 +789,10 @@ func RunAppsSpecValidate(c *CmdConfig) error {
 		return err
 	}
 
+	// validate the spec against the API
+	if err := c.initServices(c); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 	res, err := c.Apps().Propose(&godo.AppProposeRequest{
 		Spec: appSpec,
 	})
diff --git a/integration/apps_spec_test.go b/integration/apps_spec_test.go
index 2b74fe156..d32cd5441 100644
--- a/integration/apps_spec_test.go
+++ b/integration/apps_spec_test.go
@@ -197,6 +197,24 @@ var _ = suite("apps/spec/validate", func(t *testing.T, when spec.G, it spec.S) {
 		expect.Equal(expectedOutput, strings.TrimSpace(string(output)))
 	})
 
+	it("schema-only works without auth", func() {
+		cmd := exec.Command(builtBinaryPath,
+			"-u", server.URL,
+			"apps", "spec", "validate",
+			"--schema-only", "-",
+		)
+		byt, err := json.Marshal(testAppSpec)
+		expect.NoError(err)
+
+		cmd.Stdin = bytes.NewReader(byt)
+
+		output, err := cmd.CombinedOutput()
+		expect.NoError(err)
+
+		expectedOutput := "name: test\nservices:\n- github:\n    branch: main\n    repo: digitalocean/doctl\n  name: service"
+		expect.Equal(expectedOutput, strings.TrimSpace(string(output)))
+	})
+
 	it("calls proposeapp", func() {
 		cmd := exec.Command(builtBinaryPath,
 			"-t", "some-magic-token",