# Nomograph Labs — reference

> Principles, design language, templates, and enforceable standards for the Nomograph estate. One source of truth, served to humans and to AI harnesses.

## Use

- Conform: clone this repo and run `just check <repo>` (runs every contract's check.sh; one pass/fail answer).
- Consume tokens: `@import "https://reference.nomograph.ai/tokens/themes.css"` and set `data-theme` to light or void.
- Install standards as skills: each `/standards/<name>/index.md` is a SKILL.md a harness can install directly.
- Account for a gap: file an issue on the repo.

## Standards

- [design-system](https://reference.nomograph.ai/standards/design-system/index.md): Consume Nomograph design tokens (paper/ink/steel/ember/void scales, light + void themes) via semantic role variables. Do not hard-code brand colors.
- [pipeline](https://reference.nomograph.ai/standards/pipeline/index.md): CI catalog includes are pinned to a tag, never to @latest or @main. Reproducible builds require pinned inputs.
- [repository](https://reference.nomograph.ai/standards/repository/index.md): "Every Nomograph repo ships the same skeleton: avatar.svg, hero.svg, LICENSE, CODEOWNERS, and a README that opens with the hero embed."

## Principles

- [bundled-enforcement](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/bundled-enforcement/index.md): [Primitives] You cannot get the value without the verification; the check is inseparable from the thing it checks.
- [derived-obligations](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/derived-obligations/index.md): [Primitives] The system computes what correct looks like from the spec; each codegen step is a layer where wrong output cannot be expressed.
- [effect-sizes-not-leaderboards](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/effect-sizes-not-leaderboards/index.md): [Method] Report effect sizes and trial counts, not ranks. A position on a board is not a finding.
- [find-the-friction](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/find-the-friction/index.md): [Method] Leverage hides where the work drags. Start there, not where it is convenient to measure.
- [keep-what-survives](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/keep-what-survives/index.md): [Method] Ship what survives measurement; discard the rest. The record is what held up.
- [measurement-first](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/measurement-first/index.md): [Method] Design the measurement before the tool. Drag that cannot be scored cannot be removed.
- [prescriptive-failure](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/prescriptive-failure/index.md): [Primitives] When the system rejects, it names what to do next, not just what went wrong.
- [simulate-to-iterate](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/simulate-to-iterate/index.md): [Method] Run the work as a cheap, repeatable experiment so the configuration space can be searched, not guessed.
- [stack-coverage](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/stack-coverage/index.md): [Evidence] Where each of the four primitives applies across a stack, and where the gaps are.
- [sycophancy](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/sycophancy/index.md): [Evidence] How RLHF training incentives create the failure modes the four primitives address.
- [token-data](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/token-data/index.md): [Evidence] The empirical basis, numbers from the literature that inform the four primitives.
- [vacuity-detection](https://reference.nomograph.ai/principles/vacuity-detection/index.md): [Primitives] Catch code that technically passes but verifies nothing, the test with no assertions, the gate that always returns true.

## Tokens

- [themes.css](https://reference.nomograph.ai/tokens/themes.css): semantic role tokens (light + void themes)
- [colors.css](https://reference.nomograph.ai/tokens/colors.css): raw color scales
- [colors.json](https://reference.nomograph.ai/tokens/colors.json): scales as JSON