Raintree Standards

Version 1 open-source standards library · CC BY 4.0 and MIT

Raintree Standards helps practitioners and agents turn a product, engineering, security, data, content, or marketing task into testable requirements and evidence. Use it when a checklist is too vague and a task needs explicit applicability, verification, exceptions, and accountable review.

Version 1 establishes the library structure, stable rule IDs, task profiles, and automated validation. Check each document's status and review metadata before using it for a high-impact decision.

Start with a task

1. Choose the closest task profile in profiles/.
2. Read every standard named by the profile’s depends_on field.
3. Decide which conditional rules apply to the task and its risks.
4. Collect the verification evidence required by each applicable rule.
5. Report satisfied rules, approved exceptions, and unresolved gaps by stable rule ID.

Codex users can install the generated plugin from the public Raintree marketplace:

codex plugin marketplace add raintree-technology/plugins
codex plugin add raintree-standards@raintree

flowchart LR
  T[Task and outcome] --> P[Profile]
  P --> R[Applicable rules]
  R --> E[Evidence or exception]
  E --> D[Review decision]

Worked example: improve a public README

Suppose the task is “make an open-source repository easier to evaluate and install.”

Step	Result
Select a route	PROFILE-PUBLIC-WEB-PAGE because a repository landing page is public and indexable
Activate writing	PROFILE-FUNCTIONAL-WRITING for clarity, actions, links, and reader review
Activate showcase rules	MARKETING-PROJECT-SHOWCASE for audience, lifecycle, evidence, install path, and ecosystem context
Collect evidence	Rendered README, working quickstart, link report, package metadata, accessibility inspection, and representative-reader notes
Report the outcome	Passing rule IDs, any approved exception, and unresolved evidence such as an untested screen reader

The resulting task record connects each applicable rule to evidence instead of saying the README “looks good.” Use the open-source documentation patterns for the repository, package, example, evidence, or maintainer-guide structure.

Common entry points

• Software change profile
• Test strategy and suite design
• Agent design guidance and evaluation
• Testing field guide
• Functional writing profile
• Public web page profile
• Product feature profile
• Agentic system profile
• Programmatic interface and service change profile
• Database change profile
• Growth experiment profile
• Standards conformance audit
• Complete coverage matrix

How the library works

This is a governed standards library, not a general collection of tips. Each standard states when its rules apply, how strongly they apply, why they exist, how to verify them, and when an exception is allowed.

Markdown is the source of truth. Governed concept documents use Open Knowledge Format v0.2 frontmatter with a stricter Raintree application profile.

Type	Purpose
Foundation	Cross-cutting constraints such as security, privacy, accessibility, reliability, trust, and evidence quality
Standard	Testable requirements for a domain
Pattern	Preferred implementation approach with known tradeoffs
Playbook	Ordered procedure for recurring work
Profile	Task-oriented bundle of applicable standards
Decision	Durable explanation of an important choice

Key machine-readable surfaces:

• llms.txt gives agents an explicit route to canonical Markdown sources.
• catalog.yaml indexes governed documents.
• schema/standard.schema.json defines standard frontmatter.
• schema/project-showcase-record.schema.json defines canonical public project records.
• source-register.yaml records source owners and freshness policy.
• testing/routes.yaml maps testing questions, types, stages, rules, recipes, and copyable records.

Tools must preserve unknown frontmatter fields because Raintree does not define the complete OKF vocabulary.

Lifecycle and trust boundary

The OKF status field uses draft, stable, and deprecated. Raintree’s governance_status uses draft, active, deprecated, and retired. A stable document's review metadata reports its maturity independently of the library version.

Source discovery, schema validation, migration, and author review do not count as independent content verification. Apply only rules whose conditions are true. Record missing evidence as a gap or unknown rather than inventing approval or conformance.

Agents may read, search, cite, and apply the library. They must not change it unless a user explicitly assigns a standards-maintenance task. AGENTS.md defines that boundary.

Validate the library

ruby scripts/validate_catalog.rb
ruby scripts/validate_integrations.rb
ruby scripts/validate_testing_reference.rb
ruby scripts/test_route_profile.rb
ruby scripts/test_schema_drift.rb
ruby scripts/test_workflows.rb
ruby scripts/test_standards_lib.rb
ruby scripts/test_validate_catalog.rb
ruby scripts/test_validate_integrations.rb
ruby scripts/test_validate_testing_reference.rb
ruby scripts/test_project_readme.rb

Raintree open-source system

Raintree Standards defines the governed requirements, evidence, profiles, and exceptions. Each sibling project can be used independently.

Project	Responsibility
DocPull	Acquires, versions, cites, and exports agent context.
PolicyStrata	Tests policy behavior across agent, compiler, database, and release layers.
HIG Doctor	Audits interface source and provides HIG guidance.
Trellis	Enforces shared JavaScript and TypeScript code policy through Biome.

See the Raintree open-source portfolio for current lifecycle and distribution links.

Project policies

Contribution requirements · Security · Code of Conduct · Changelog · License and attribution

Standards and documentation use CC BY 4.0. Software, schemas, workflows, and executable configuration use the MIT License. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for source attribution.