The Institutional Standards of Anabasis
The building code: authority, normative vocabulary, citation format, waiver rules.
- Authority rank
- 4
- Version
- v1.0
- Adopted
- 2026-04-01
- Held by
- Stewardship Office
- System
- SYS-10
Source · docs/standards/00-index.md
The building code. The Constitution says what must endure. The Codices explain how the institution works. The Standards ensure everything is built consistently.
1. Authority
1.1 The Standards are subordinate to Codex 1 (the Constitution), to Codex 0 (the specification and Registry), and to Codices 2–11. They sit above dated decision records and above implementation.
Codex 1 what must endure (constitution)
Codex 0 how the institution works (specification + registry)
Codices 2-11 domain doctrine
Standards how everything is built (this layer)
Decisions dated choices against the above
Charter the public voice
src/ implementation1.2 A Standard never overrides a Codex. Where a Standard and a Codex conflict, the Codex governs and the Standard is amended to match, by decision record.
1.3 A Standard binds every division, every contributor, and every AI system working on Anabasis. There is no division-specific exemption; see §4 on waivers.
1.4 Where a Standard is silent, the governing Codex applies. Silence is not permission.
2. What a Standard is
2.1 A Codex says what is true and why. A Standard says what you must do, and how a reviewer who did not do the work verifies that you did it.
2.2 Every clause in a Standard is checkable. If satisfaction of a clause cannot be verified by a second person, it is not a standard clause; it belongs in the governing Codex as principle and is moved there.
2.3 Normative vocabulary, fixed for the whole layer:
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| must | Required. Non-conformance blocks the work from shipping. |
| must not | Forbidden. Present in the work, it blocks, without exception and without waiver. |
| should | Required unless a stated reason is recorded in the work's review. A silent deviation is a defect. |
| may | Permitted; carries no obligation either way. |
2.4 Every Standard carries the same sections: purpose; scope and non-scope; numbered normative clauses; the governing Codex clauses it derives from; a conformance checklist; interfaces to other Standards; open questions.
2.5 The conformance checklist is the reviewer's instrument. It is signed, not interpreted. Each line is answerable yes, no, or not-applicable-because.
3. Citation
3.1 Standards carry permanent IDs and clause numbers. Citations take the form:
STD-A §3.2 Architecture Standard, section 3, clause 2
STD-Q §1 Quality Standard, section 1 entire3.2 IDs and clause numbers are permanent. A clause may be superseded and struck in place with a pointer to the decision record that replaced it. Numbers are never reused and never renumbered.
4. Waivers
4.1 A must clause may be waived only by an explicit written waiver. A must not clause may never be waived.
4.2 A waiver states: the clause waived; what was traded and why; what specifically repays it; who owns the repayment; the expiry date.
4.3 A waiver without an owner and an expiry date is void, and work relying on it is non-conformant.
4.4 Waivers touching mission, member trust, data use, credential integrity, or reserves require the Stewardship Office's assent (Codex 9). Others are granted by the owning division lead.
4.5 Every live waiver is visible in the work's Registry entry. An expired waiver is a defect, reported, not renewed silently.
5. The Standards
| ID | Standard | Governs | Derives from |
|---|---|---|---|
| STD-A | Architecture | system design, engine boundaries, dependency direction, when a new system is justified | Codex 0 ch. 05, 07, 10, 17; Codex 7 |
| STD-D | Data | modeling, naming, identity, time and money, migrations, retention and severance | Codex 0 ch. 06, 07; Codex 5 |
| STD-S | Security | privacy, access, elevation, secrets, auditability, incidents | Codex 0 ch. 08; Codex 1 Art. V; Codex 7 |
| STD-I | AI | agent scope, permitted data, human checkpoints, explanation, evaluation, logging | Codex 0 ch. 13; Codex 1 Art. IV; Codex 3 |
| STD-X | Design | visual and interaction language, tokens, states, accessibility, metadata | Codex 0 ch. 11, 12; Codex 6 and its rubric |
| STD-R | Research | evidence, citation, methodology, peer review, correction and retraction | Codex 0 ch. 16; Codex 1 Art. IV |
| STD-F | Financial | allocation priority, reserves, pricing, recognition, evaluation, reporting | Codex 0 ch. 15, 16; Codex 8 |
| STD-Q | Quality | the institutional definition of done, for every kind of work | all of the above |
5.1 STD-Q is the keystone. The other seven hold subject-matter rules; STD-Q is the single gate that declares a thing finished, and it references the others rather than restating them.
5.2 Nothing ships without passing STD-Q. "Ships" means: reaches a member, a client, a partner, the public, or production data.
6. Order of work
6.1 Before implementation, in this order: the Codex 1 Article III tests → the Registry entry with all eight fields (Codex 0 §0.6) → the governing subject Standard → for surfaces and interactions, the Codex 6 templates and rubric → build → STD-Q conformance → Registry status moved.
6.2 The Institutional Critic (Codex 10) applies to anything major, before proposal, not after.
7. Amendment
7.1 A Standard is amended by a decision record in ../codices/DECISIONS/ naming the clauses changed, the reasoning, what it supersedes, the Codex 10 examination, and the Codex 8 evaluation — then editing the Standard.
7.2 A pattern of waivers against the same clause is evidence the clause is wrong. It is then amended or removed, never quietly ignored.
7.3 A new Standard is added only when no existing Standard can absorb the subject.
8. Status
These are internal engineering and governance documents. They are not compliance certification, audit attestation, or customer-facing copy, and must never be quoted as such.