EquilateralAgents Community Standards

February 4, 2026 · View on GitHub

Community-contributed development patterns and practices.

Curated by HappyHippo.ai, contributed by the community.

51 standards | 661 rules | 280+ anti-patterns

What Are Community Standards?

This repository contains battle-tested patterns from developers using EquilateralAgents in production. These aren't universal principles (those live in Open Core) - they're proven practices that work in specific contexts.

Structure

community-standards/
├── TEMPLATE.yaml       # Copy this to start a new pattern
├── CONTRIBUTING.md     # Submission guidelines
└── patterns/           # All community standards (*.yaml)

How to Use

Add to Your Project

Option 1: Git Submodule (Recommended)

cd your-project
git submodule add https://github.com/Equilateral-AI/EquilateralAgents-Community-Standards.git .standards-community

Option 2: Clone Separately

git clone https://github.com/Equilateral-AI/EquilateralAgents-Community-Standards.git

Option 3: Via Project/Object

npm install -g @equilateral_ai/project-object
project-object init

Reference in Your AI Assistant

Add to .cursorrules or CLAUDE.md:

# Community Standards: ./.standards-community/

Check community patterns before implementing:
1. Search .standards-community/patterns/ for similar problems
2. Follow established conventions where applicable

YAML Schema

Every standard follows this schema. See TEMPLATE.yaml for a copyable starting point.

Required Fields

Field	Type	Description
`id`	string	Unique identifier, kebab-case, must match filename
`category`	string	Always `patterns` for this repo
`priority`	integer	Injection priority: `10` = critical, `20` = important, `30` = advisory
`updated`	date	Last modified date in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD)
`rules`	array	Actionable rules (at least one required)
`anti_patterns`	array	What NOT to do (at least one required)

Optional Fields

Field	Type	Description
`title`	string	Human-readable name
`description`	string	1-3 sentence summary of what this pattern solves
`examples`	object	Named code examples (key: description, value: code block)
`cost_impact`	object	`bad_pattern` and `good_pattern` cost/perf descriptions
`context`	string	Background for humans - problem, when to use, trade-offs (not injected to agents)
`related`	array	IDs of related standards in this repo
`tags`	array	Filtering tags (e.g. `security`, `performance`, `agent`)
`source`	string	Origin attribution (e.g. `community`, `open-core`, `claude-flow`)

Rule Actions

Action	Meaning	Injection
`ALWAYS`	Mandatory, no exceptions	`[REQUIRE]`
`NEVER`	Prohibited, no exceptions	`[AVOID]`
`USE`	Recommended approach/tool/pattern	`[REQUIRE]`
`PREFER`	Favored over alternatives, exceptions allowed	`[PREFER]`
`AVOID`	Discouraged but not prohibited	`[AVOID]`

Rule Structure

rules:
  - action: ALWAYS
    rule: "Do this specific thing"
  - action: NEVER
    rule: "Never do this"
    applies_to:              # Optional: limit to specific file patterns
      - "src/**/*.js"
      - "**/*.ts"

Contributing

Found a pattern that works? Share it with the community!

Fork this repo

Copy the template:

cp TEMPLATE.yaml patterns/your-pattern-id.yaml

Edit your pattern - fill in rules, anti-patterns, examples
Submit PR with title: "Pattern: [Your Pattern Name]"

See CONTRIBUTING.md for full guidelines.

Good Candidates

Solved a real production problem
Used successfully in multiple projects
Specific enough to be actionable
Follows YAML schema exactly

Not Good Candidates

Markdown format (use YAML)
Theoretical/untested approaches
Company-specific implementations
Universal principles (submit to Open Core instead)

Review Process

Community reviews within 7 days
Curator (HappyHippo.ai) approves/merges
If pattern becomes universal, promoted to Open Core
Contributors credited in CONTRIBUTORS.md

Three-Tier Standards System

Where does your pattern belong?

Open Core (.standards/)
- Universal principles
- Technology-agnostic
- Apply to ALL projects
- Example: "No mocks in production code"
Community Standards (.standards-community/ - THIS REPO)
- Proven patterns
- Context-specific
- Apply to MANY projects
- Example: "Agent retry with exponential backoff"
Local Standards (.standards-local/ - your repo)
- Team-specific
- Company conventions
- Apply to YOUR project
- Example: "Use snake_case for database fields"

Current Standards

51 community standards across these domains:

Agent Governance - enforcement gates, adversarial defense, trust scoring, audit trails, memory governance, authority hierarchy, capability permissions, loop/budget control, uncertainty management
Security - OWASP API, web application security, container security, secrets management, vulnerability scanning, OAuth flows, dependency management, GDPR compliance
Backend - REST API design, architecture patterns, clean code, error handling, caching, structured logging, message queues, microservices resilience
Frontend - React components, state management, accessibility, i18n, web performance
DevOps - CI/CD pipelines, deployment safety, Docker optimization, infrastructure-as-code, git workflows, SLO observability, monorepo patterns
Testing - TDD methodology, E2E/integration testing
Data - database design, data validation
Documentation - ADR patterns
Languages - TypeScript patterns, Python patterns, GraphQL APIs

License

MIT License - see LICENSE

Patterns remain property of original contributors. By submitting, you grant HappyHippo.ai permission to curate and distribute under MIT license.