Start here (reading order)

1. README.md — the index and the one rule this folder lives by.
2. The standard the task in front of you needs — and only that one.

Non-negotiables

• SSOT, ruthlessly. Each fact has exactly one home here; every other mention (in these files or any repo) is a pointer. The same thing stated twice is a bug — fix it to a link.
• These files are written IN the voice they define. Any edit follows VOICE.md (no backticks in prose, no em-dashes in prose, honest limits over hype). The standards must pass themselves.
• The published URL is load-bearing. Renames/removals of a standard break every repo's CLAUDE.md links and the rendered /standards/<slug> pages (slugs are the lowercased filename). If a file must move, keep the index accurate and fix the known inbound refs in the same change.
• This is a docs set, not an app. No runtime code, no build — just .md. It lives as the portfolio's standards/ dir and is resolved by consumers through the portfolio package's ./standards/* export; keep it that way (no code creeps in here).
• The starter is the on-ramp. Changes to how a new repo is wired (badges, symlinks, the reference-don't-fork rule) land in CLAUDE.starter.md — that's the file every future repo copies.

The frontmatter contract

Every standard opens with title, summary, and when. The first two feed the rendered page and the index. The third is the one that does work at runtime: it becomes the description of the mounted skill, and it is the only thing an agent reads when deciding whether to open the file at all. A standard with a weak when is a standard that never fires, so it is written as a command, not a description, in three parts:

1. Pre-emptive placement. "Read this BEFORE writing the first line of prose", never "use when writing prose". It has to fire at intent, before the work it governs, not after.
2. Literal trigger tokens. The surface words a real prompt will contain, spelled out: note, post, README, commit message, diagram, root, handoff.
3. One anti-rationalization line, lifted from that standard's own Rationalizations table. "Don't skip because it is internal." The excuse gets refuted where it will actually be read.

Three files carry no when on purpose: README.md is the index, this file is the directory's own operating rules and already auto-loads, and AGENTS.md is a symlink to it.

A fourth key, skill, is optional and overrides the slug the standard mounts under. It exists for one reason: the agent harness ships built-in skills of its own, and a mount whose name collides is silently shadowed. It lands on disk, never appears in the listing, and so never fires. LOOP.md hit exactly that against the built-in loop, which is why it carries skill: loop-standard. Add the key only when a name actually collides, and check the listing after mounting a new standard rather than assuming the file being written means the skill is live.

The heavier standards also carry Rationalizations, Red flags, and Verification sections. Verification is the load-bearing one: keep those lists short, mechanical, and evidence-shaped (gate output verbatim, never "tests pass"), because they are what a checker is meant to read.

Definition of done

The edit + the index (README.md) still true + inbound links still resolve + published rendering checked (or noted for the next portfolio deploy) + a memory if a decision was made.