Open standard · MIT
The aDNA Network
aDNA (agentic DNA) is an open standard for organizing a project's files so AI agents — and the people working with them — always know where things live: three folders, plain Markdown, versioned in git. This site is the standard, its docs, and the registry of workspaces — 'vaults' — that run it.
For teams working with agentic coding tools on real projects. Not a product or service — no server, no signup, nothing leaves your machine.
Your context is just the notes, docs, and decisions you already keep — now shaped into a graph your agents can navigate, and shared in the open.
git clone https://github.com/aDNA-Network/aDNA.git ~/aDNA && cd ~/aDNA && claude Four public-good subnetworks are taking shape here — World Genome Academy · Context Commons · Wilhelm AI for the Undiagnosed · Rare Archive
Who's behind aDNA →Language and DNA were co-created by everyone before us. The context that powers AI should be too — built, shared, and governed in the open, for the good of all.
What a context democracy is
A self-governed network where people and their agents build, share, and govern context graphs in the open — each project its own graph, all of them federating into a shared commons.
- OpenMIT-licensed — the spec, the workspace image, and the registry data are public.
- FederatedEach project keeps its own graph; they connect by citation, not central control.
- Co-ownedNo vendor owns your context — you govern it, in the open.
- Agents & humansOne graph, legible to your AI and to you at the same time.
Real aDNA vaults — forges, frameworks, platforms, and public-good archives — connected by the relationships they declare.
The living registry
Every vault is a real, governed context graph with its own place in the network — most tended by a named agent. Here's a slice across 74 of them.
aDNA
tended by Rosetta
III
tended by Argus
Inspect/Introspect/Improve quality framework
Canvas
tended by Mondrian
Operations
tended by Berthier
LA Venture Graph
tended by Cartographer
LA venture ecosystem knowledge graph (UCLA Anderson + Nerdstage/Demo Day LA)
Home
tended by Hestia
wga
World Genome Academy — buildpack + symphony + site
RareArchive
tended by Mnemosyne
Rare Archive OSS rare-disease AI project
How it Works
Three steps from scattered files to a project your agents can navigate — and keep navigating.
Structure
Every agent session starts from scratch — agents relearn your project by rummaging through files. aDNA ends that. Three directories (what you know, how you work, who's involved) give any agent instant orientation.
aDNA.aDNA/
├── CLAUDE.md ← agent operating protocol
├── STATE.md ← current phase, blockers
├── what/ ← what the project knows
│ ├── context/ typed context library
│ └── decisions/ architecture records
├── how/ ← how it operates
│ ├── campaigns/ strategic initiatives
│ └── missions/ decomposed work
└── who/ ← who's involved
└── governance/ roles & policy
Orient
Without a map, agents blast through irrelevant files or ask you to re-explain the project. Agents read your CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md first, then pull typed context at exactly the depth they need — not your entire repo, not a blank slate.
# CLAUDE.md — aDNA.aDNA ## Identity & Personality You are Rosetta — named after the Rosetta Stone. This vault presents the aDNA standard in three registers: technical spec, operational practice, plain language. ## Standing Orders 1. Phase gates are human gates. 2. Destructive actions require confirmation.
Execute
Context windows close and wipe progress — the next agent starts over. aDNA decomposes work into sessions, missions, and campaigns — context-sized chunks that fit a single agent window. What one agent learns, the next inherits.
mission_id: mission_wadna_p3_iterate phase: 3 status: in_progress ## Decade backbone D1 Credibility-integrity — active D2 Navigation & docs — queued D3 Agentic + community — queued D4 Visual craft — queued
New to aDNA? Start here
Cloned the workspace image and want to understand it before you build? The standard
embeds in .adna/; the guided path lives here — a five-minute tour, the
core concepts, and hands-on tutorials.
The Standard
aDNA is an open specification — MIT licensed, open to contribution, designed for extension.
Join the network
The network is open — run a node, share a vault, and help shape the standard. Mission-aligned subnetworks are taking shape around real public-good work.
- World Genome Academy Genomics knowledge as a shared commons
- Context Commons Agentic-context literacy, shared
- Wilhelm AI for the Undiagnosed AI for people living with undiagnosed disease
- Rare Archive Open-source rare-disease AI
aDNA for Researchers Educators Enterprise Compliance Startups Adopters