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*[image: Cozy pixel-art archive library with warm-lit shelves of books and a brass reading lamp — the canonical aDNA reference]*

# The Standard

The normative references for the aDNA standard. Start with the specification — when in doubt, it is authoritative — then the rationale, governance, and craft docs that support it.

## The specification

Standard v2.5

Agentic DNA (aDNA) — A knowledge architecture standard for AI-native projects.
[Read the specification →](/reference/specification)

## Rationale & guides

Why aDNA is shaped the way it is, and how to read, adopt, and set it up.

[Design Rationale This document explains why aDNA is designed the way it is — the companion to the aDNA Universal Standard, which defines what to do.](/reference/design-rationale)[Reading Guide The aDNA Universal Standard is ~1,500 lines. You don't need all of them. This guide maps three reading paths by what you're trying to do, provides a…](/reference/reading-guide)[Agent-First Guide This guide is for developers who want to use aDNA with Claude Code (or another AI coding agent) from the terminal, without installing Obsidian. If you…](/reference/agent-first-guide)[Migration Guide This guide is for developers who already have a project and want to add aDNA to it. If you're starting fresh, use the Quick Start instead — clone the…](/reference/migration-guide)[Tool Setup Every aDNA setup needs three things: Git, a text editor that reads Markdown and YAML, and Python 3.8+ for the validation tooling.](/reference/tool-setup)

## Governance & quality

How decisions get made and how conformance is measured.

[Governance Model The aDNA standard is stewarded today by a Founding Architect, and is progressively decentralizing toward steward-led, public governance.](/reference/governance-model)[Quality Rubric Systematic quality evaluation framework for context library objects. Provides a 6-axis quantitative rubric that gates all context files — any file…](/reference/quality-rubric)

## Craft

The house style for writing and visual identity across aDNA surfaces.

[Writing Guidelines Canonical clarity and conciseness guidelines for aDNA prose surfaces — checklist, voice precedents, conciseness contract, and validation gate.](/reference/writing-guidelines)[Visual Identity v2 Canonical visual identity for aDNA.network — the Science-Stanley Ghibli-pixel / Tokyo Night register: color, type, spacing, imagery, icons, diagrams.](/reference/visual-identity-v2)

## Resources

Vocabulary and operational guides that support the specification.

[Glossary 25 canonical aDNA term definitions — from AGENTS.md to Vault, with spec cross-references.](/glossary)[How Operational guides: workshop kits, publishing pipeline, lattice examples, and skill recipes.](/how)