Reading Guide

The aDNA Universal Standard is 1,336 lines. You don’t need all of them. This guide maps three reading paths by what you’re trying to do, provides a section-by-section table of contents, and disambiguates the skill/lattice dual identity.

1. Reading Paths

Three personas, three curated paths through the standard:

New Adopter Path

Read these six sections in order. They give you the structural foundation to set up and operate an aDNA vault.

1. §1 Introduction & Scope — What aDNA is, who it’s for, RFC 2119 keywords
2. §2 Terminology — 12 key terms (triad, governance file, bare/embedded, session, SITREP)
3. §3 Triad Architecture — The who/what/how ontology, bare vs. embedded deployment forms
4. §4 Governance Files — CLAUDE.md, MANIFEST.md, STATE.md, AGENTS.md, README.md — what each does
5. §5 Directory Structure — Required/recommended/optional subdirectories for each triad leg
6. §7 Frontmatter System — Required YAML fields, tag conventions, type-specific extensions

After this path: You can create and operate a standard aDNA vault. Come back for sessions (§8), missions (§9), and collision prevention (§13) when you need them.

Extension Builder Path

Start with the new adopter path above, then add these four sections:

7. §6 Naming Conventions — type_descriptive_name.md pattern, ALLCAPS governance list, directory naming
8. §12 Template System — Starter/Standard/Full template sets, template conventions
9. §14 Content-as-Code Pipelines — Folder-based workflows where file location = processing state
10. §19 Optional Extensions — Machine registry, backlog, skill files, testing/CI, reference code, ADRs

After this path: You can extend an aDNA vault with custom entity types, templates, pipelines, and optional subsystems.

Standard Contributor Path

Read everything. The appendices (§20) contain the persona framework, aggregation point patterns, deferred topics, and the full decision traceability matrix mapping all 40 design decisions to their spec locations.

2. Section Map

All 20 numbered sections of the standard with one-line summaries, persona tags, and line ranges.

Persona key: All = everyone reads this. Extension+ = extension builders and contributors. Operations = anyone running sessions/missions. Multi-agent = concurrent agent environments. Reference = consult when needed. Contributor = standard contributors.

3. When to Read the Design Document

adna_design.md is the companion “why” document. It explains the rationale behind design decisions — why three legs, why these governance files, why these trade-offs. Read it when you want:

• Rationale for why the standard works the way it does
• Worked examples of deployment patterns (standalone, nested, federated)
• Trade-off analysis behind structural decisions

The design document is not required for operational use. The standard tells you what to do; the design document tells you why.

4. Skill vs. Lattice: When to Use Which

aDNA has two constructs that both deal with “reusable capabilities” — skill files and skill-type lattices. They serve different purposes and live in different locations.

Comparison

Decision Rule

Start with a skill file. If the procedure needs to be published to a registry, composed with other lattices, or executed by a runtime engine, promote it to a lattice_type: skill lattice.

The promotion path is documented in how/skills/skill_lattice_publish.md. Most agent recipes stay as skill files — lattice promotion is for procedures that need computational composability.

Examples

5. Quick Reference

“I want to…”

Cross-References

• aDNA Universal Standard — the normative spec this guide navigates
• aDNA Design Document — architecture rationale and trade-off analysis
• Migration Guide — adding aDNA to existing projects
• Agent-First Guide — terminal-first aDNA setup
• Projects Folder Pattern — multi-project workspace with shared templates
• Skills Protocol — skill file conventions and categories