Conformance Level
Plain-Language Definition
Conformance levels are three tiers — Starter, Standard, and Full — that define how much of the aDNA standard a project implements. Think of them like belt colors: Starter is the minimum viable setup, Standard adds multi-agent coordination, and Full adds federation-ready metadata and a complete template library.
Technical Definition
A graduated tier (Starter, Standard, Full) defining the minimum requirements an aDNA instance MUST meet to claim conformance at that level. Starter requires governance files + triad directories + required subdirectories + base frontmatter. Standard adds STATE.md, per-directory AGENTS.md, session lifecycle compliance. Full adds context library with token estimates, FAIR metadata, ontology artifact, and template compliance. Projects declare their level via adna_conformance in MANIFEST.md frontmatter. (aDNA Standard §5.5)
Usage Examples
- This vault (
aDNA.aDNA/) meets Full conformance: it has all governance files, per-directory AGENTS.md files, a context library with token estimates, FAIR metadata on lattice objects, an ontology artifact, and templates for all content types. - A brand-new project forked from the base template starts at Starter conformance and graduates upward as it adds infrastructure.