# Standards Overview

This section contains technical, documentation, and business standards.

## Current State

No formal standards documents have been published yet. The following standards are applied implicitly through existing architecture, operations, and development documentation but have not been formalized as controlled standards documents.

## Recommended Standards

The following standards were identified through project analysis as candidates for formal documentation. Each aligns to the policy repository naming convention (`KC-STD-<DOMAIN>-<NUMBER>`) and can be created using the standard template at `policies/templates/standard-template.md`.

### Documentation standards

| Candidate ID   | Title                                      | Priority | Notes                                                                                                             |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------ | -------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| KC-STD-GOV-001 | Documentation Naming and Metadata Standard | High     | Formalize the YAML front matter requirements already defined in the policy repository README                      |
| KC-STD-GOV-002 | Architecture Documentation Standard        | Medium   | Formalize the C4 diagram documentation pattern (purpose, diagram source, diagram, elements, notes) already in use |
| KC-STD-IT-001  | Markdown Authoring Standard                | Low      | Formalize linting rules (`.markdownlint.json`), heading conventions, and link patterns                            |

### Development standards

| Candidate ID  | Title                              | Priority | Notes                                                                                                |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------- | -------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| KC-STD-IT-002 | Flutter Package Structure Standard | High     | Formalize the domain/application/data/presentation layer pattern used across feature packages        |
| KC-STD-IT-003 | Test Coverage Standard             | Medium   | Formalize baseline coverage expectations and reporting; currently visibility-only with no thresholds |
| KC-STD-IT-004 | Git Branching and Merge Standard   | Medium   | Formalize the `feat/` branch-per-slice model and PR requirements documented in the development brief |
| KC-STD-IT-005 | CI/CD Workflow Standard            | Low      | Formalize workflow naming, trigger patterns, and runner label conventions                            |

### Business standards

| Candidate ID   | Title                            | Priority | Notes                                                  |
| -------------- | -------------------------------- | -------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| KC-STD-MKT-001 | Social Media Publishing Standard | Low      | Referenced in the traceability index as a coverage gap |
| KC-STD-ECM-001 | Product Publishing Standard      | Low      | Referenced in the traceability index as a coverage gap |
| KC-STD-OPS-001 | Inventory Adjustment Standard    | Low      | Referenced in the traceability index as a coverage gap |

## Prioritization

Standards should be prioritized based on:

1. **Risk reduction** — Does this standard prevent inconsistency or errors?
2. **Existing practice** — Is the standard already followed informally?
3. **Scope of impact** — How many areas of the platform does it affect?

The documentation and development standards are recommended first because they codify practices already in use and reduce the risk of drift as the platform grows.

## Relationship to Policies and Procedures

Standards define measurable requirements and constraints. They are governed by the Document Control Policy (`KC-POL-GOV-001`) and follow the same controlled lifecycle (draft → review → active → retired).
