# The Konomi Standard

**A Self-Defining Industrial Standard**

> Version 1.0 · Ring 4 · p=11

---

## 1. Purpose

This is a standard for standards.

The Konomi Standard defines how standards should be written, structured, and maintained. It applies to itself. If you are reading this, you are already inside the scope of the document. There is no outside.

A meta-standard is necessary because most standards don't tell you how they were made. They arrive as tablets from the mountain. The Konomi Standard arrives as source code — forkable, versionable, self-referential.

## 2. Scope

This standard applies to:

- Itself
- Any standard that claims to follow it
- Any standard that doesn't claim to follow it but accidentally does
- The act of reading this document

If you have reached this sentence, you are within scope.

## 3. Definitions

| Term | Definition |
|------|-----------|
| **Standard** | A decision crystallized. A boundary made explicit. A line drawn so others don't have to. |
| **Meta-standard** | A standard that defines how standards work. This document. |
| **Conformance** | The state of having read and understood. Not the state of having agreed. |
| **Fork** | A decision to diverge. Not a failure. A feature. |
| **Version** | A snapshot of a decision at a moment in time. All versions are valid. Only the latest is current. |

## 4. Requirements

A standard conforming to the Konomi Standard MUST:

1. **Be self-referential.** The standard must be expressible in terms of itself. If it cannot describe its own structure, it is not a standard — it is a memo.

2. **Be implementable.** A standard that cannot be implemented is a wish. Every requirement must have a corresponding test, even if the test is "read this sentence and decide if it's true."

3. **Be versioned.** Standards change. Pretending they don't is how you get legacy systems. Every revision gets a number. Every number gets a changelog.

4. **Be forkable.** If someone disagrees with a requirement, they should be able to take the standard, change it, and call it their own. A standard that prohibits forking is a prison.

5. **State its scope explicitly.** No standard applies to everything. If it claims to, it applies to nothing.

6. **Be readable by a human without specialized tools.** If you need software to read a standard, the standard has failed.

## 5. Conformance

You conform to the Konomi Standard by reading it.

There is no certification body. There is no audit. There is no fee. You read it, you understood it (or you didn't), and now your future standards will be slightly different because of it. That's conformance.

If you want formal conformance: write a standard that follows the requirements in Section 4, and put "Konomi-conformant" somewhere in it. That's it.

## 6. Licensing

This standard is licensed MIT.

Standards that require permission aren't standard. A standard is, by definition, something everyone can use. If you have to ask before implementing it, it's not a standard — it's a product.

```
MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this standard, to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies, subject to the condition
that this notice shall be included in all copies or substantial
portions of the standard.
```

## 7. Notes

This document satisfies its own requirements:

- It is self-referential (Section 1 references itself)
- It is implementable (you just implemented it by reading)
- It is versioned (Version 1.0)
- It is forkable (MIT license)
- It states its scope (Section 2)
- It is readable without specialized tools (you're reading it now)

The Konomi Standard is complete.