Naming Standards

How do you make a system's concepts navigable by both humans and machines?

Three layers, each with a different job. Most teams build one and wonder why the other two break.

Three Layers

Layer	What It Is	Job To Be Done
Taxonomy	Structured classification — domains, subdomains, artifact types	Shared mental model of where things live. Navigation, discovery, grouping
Nomenclature	Rule-based naming — formats, casing, patterns, uniqueness	Clear, unique, predictable labels. Parseable by humans and machines
Ontology	Formal model of concepts and relationships	Agents and tools reason over the domain. Bridges between taxonomies

Taxonomy gives structure (what concepts exist and how they're grouped). Nomenclature gives labels (rules for naming instances within that structure). Ontology gives semantics (relations so systems can reason about the structure).

Without	Symptom
Taxonomy	Same concept lives in three places, nobody finds anything
Nomenclature	Every file named differently, search is guesswork
Ontology	Agents can't reason, every integration is bespoke

Without consistency, improvement is guesswork.

Taxonomy

Our canonical set of domains, subdomains, and artifact types.

Operations Hierarchy

Four levels from strategic to tactical:

STANDARD (Why)  →  PROCESS (What)  →  WORKFLOW (How)  →  CHECKLIST (Verify)

Term	Question	Scope	Changes	Example
Standard	Why does this matter?	Organization-wide rules	Rarely	Brand Guidelines, Security Policy
Process	What needs to happen?	End-to-end outcome	Periodically	Marketing, Onboarding, Sales
Workflow	How do we do this activity?	Step-by-step execution	Regularly	Article Copywriting, Lead Qualification
Checklist	Did we do it right?	Verification	As needed	Quality Gate, Pre-publish Check

STANDARD: Marketing Principles
    └── PROCESS: Content Marketing
            └── WORKFLOW: Article Copywriting
                    └── CHECKLIST: Final Quality Gate

Disambiguation:

Use This	Not This	Reason
Standard	Policy, Guideline, Rule	Implies measurable compliance
Process	System, Function	Implies flow from trigger to outcome
Workflow	SOP, Procedure, Playbook	Tool-agnostic and clear
Checklist	Task list, To-do	Implies verification, not work

Special terms:

Term	Definition	When to Use
Protocol	Rules governing interaction between systems	API specs, data exchange formats, governance rules
Playbook	Collection of related workflows	"Everything you need to run [function]"
Practice	Informal pattern not yet documented	Capture as workflow when proven valuable
Work Chart	Capability-to-demand mapping	Who does what (separate from how)

Full definitions: Process Optimisation

Content Structure

Directory	Purpose	Content Type
`/docs/`	Published documentation	Evergreen reference, frameworks, guides
`/meta/`	Published insights	Time-stamped articles, predictions, reflections
`/.agent-work/`	Working files	Drafts, research, planning (not version controlled)
`/.ai/`	Agent configuration	Skills, commands, context

Type	Location	Purpose	Frontmatter
Index	`*/index.md`	Category overview, navigation	`sidebar_position: 1`
Guide	`/docs/*/`	How-to, reference	Standard tags
Workflow	`/docs/crypto/business/*/`	Step-by-step process	Activity tags
Article	`/meta/YYYY-MM-DD-*.md`	Dated insight	Date, authors, tags
Profile	`/docs/journey/mastermind/`	Person/entity analysis	Profile tags

5P Structure

Every domain follows the same folder taxonomy:

[domain]/
├── index.md
├── [domain]-principles/     # What truths guide this domain?
├── [domain]-platform/       # What tools/infrastructure?
├── [domain]-protocols/      # What standardized processes?
├── [domain]-performance/    # How do we measure?
└── [domain]-players/        # Who does the work?

Applied fractally: Marketing gets five subfolders. Space gets five subfolders. Countries get scored on five dimensions. Same meta, different matter.

Nomenclature

How we name concrete artifacts within the taxonomy — unambiguous and machine-friendly.

Files & Folders

Folders: kebab-case

✅ docs/business/growth/marketing/
✅ docs/systems/process-optimisation/

❌ docs/Business/Growth/Marketing/     (no capitals)
❌ docs/business/growth/Marketing/     (inconsistent)
❌ docs/business_growth_marketing/     (no underscores)

Files: kebab-case.md or kebab-case.mdx

✅ marketing-article-copywriting.md
✅ process-optimisation.md

❌ MarketingArticleCopywriting.md     (no PascalCase)
❌ marketing_article_copywriting.md   (no underscores)
❌ marketing article copywriting.md   (no spaces)

Index files: index.md or index.mdx for category pages

✅ docs/systems/index.md
✅ docs/business/growth/marketing/index.md

❌ docs/systems/systems.md            (use index.md)
❌ docs/systems/README.md             (use index.md)

Dated content: YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md

✅ meta/2024-12-14-the-amplifying-wave.md
✅ meta/2024-12-10-naming-matters.md

❌ meta/the-amplifying-wave.md        (missing date)
❌ meta/14-12-2024-the-wave.md        (wrong date format)

Frontmatter

Required fields:

---
title: Page Title
sidebar_label: Short Label
tags:
  - PrimaryCategory
  - SecondaryCategory
---

Optional fields:

description: SEO description (150-160 chars)
sidebar_position: 1
authors: [matt]
date: 2024-12-14

Skills

For .agents/skills/ directories (AAIF standard).

Pattern: {category}-{capability} or {verb}-{noun}

✅ design-system
✅ question-led-writing
✅ building-landing-pages

❌ designSystem                       (use kebab-case)
❌ design_system                      (no underscores)
❌ ds                                 (too abbreviated)

Prefix	Domain	Examples
`design-*`	Visual/UI	`design-system`, `design-audit`
`building-*`	Construction	`building-landing-pages`
`writing-*`	Content creation	`question-led-writing`
`researching-*`	Investigation	`researching-depin`, `researching-business-ideas`
`tracking-*`	Monitoring	`tracking-predictions`
`analyzing-*`	Analysis	`analyzing-industries`

Word List

Use	Instead Of	Reason
Workflow	SOP, Procedure, Playbook (for single activity)	Tool-agnostic, clear
Standard	Policy, Guideline, Rule	Implies measurable
Process	System (for work documentation)	Implies flow
Checklist	Task list, To-do list	Implies verification
Work Chart	Org Chart, RACI	Capability-focused

Discouraged terms:

Avoid	Use Instead	Reason
SOP	Workflow	Industry jargon
Procedure	Workflow	Ambiguous
Policy (for work docs)	Standard	"Policy" implies HR/legal
Guideline	Standard or Workflow	Too weak
Best Practice	Standard or Workflow	Vague, undocumented
Protocol (for work steps)	Workflow	Reserve for system interaction

AI writing terms:

Avoid	Use Instead	Reason
"dive into"	"explore", "examine"	Cliche
"unveil"	"show", "reveal"	Cliche
"realm"	"area", "domain"	Cliche
"leverage" (as verb)	"use"	Jargon
"utilize"	"use"	Unnecessary complexity
"in order to"	"to"	Wordy

Search Patterns

Design names so prefix search works:

"marketing-"     → All marketing activities
"workflow-"      → All workflow documents
"researching-"   → All research skills
"/docs/crypto/business/" → All business documentation

Names should be unique enough to grep:

# Find all workflow documents
grep -r "Workflow" docs/ --include="*.md"

# Find all marketing protocols
ls docs/business/growth/marketing/marketing-processes/

Ontology

Formal relationships so humans and AI agents can operate coherently on the system.

Today this is implicit — encoded in directory structure, link patterns, and page conventions. The path forward is making it explicit and queryable.

Relationship	Example	Encoded By
`domain HAS subdomain`	Business HAS Marketing	Directory nesting
`standard GOVERNS process`	Naming Standards GOVERNS file creation	This page
`protocol ENABLES interoperability`	A2A ENABLES agent coordination	Protocols
`PRD DECOMPOSES_INTO capabilities`	Sales Dev Agent HAS Lead Scoring	Mycelium
`index DEFINES, star IMPLEMENTS`	Standards defines, Industry applies	FACT-Star architecture

The data footprint is the ontology made operational. Every industry is a data model. Understanding the data model is understanding the domain.

The Knowledge Schema describes how schemas influence attention and learning. Ontology is the schema made machine-readable — so agents can query and traverse the concept graph without human mediation.

Benchmark Context

Naming is measurement infrastructure.

Naming Quality Signal	Performance Impact
Canonical term is used consistently	Metrics and dashboards aggregate correctly
One concept has one name	Trend analysis is comparable over time
Prefix and taxonomy are stable	Search and retrieval remain reliable
Ambiguous aliases are removed	Less false confidence in performance reporting

Without naming standards, benchmarks fragment and the scoreboard lies.

Change Log

Date	Change	Reason
2026-02	Added three-layer framework (Taxonomy, Nomenclature, Ontology)	Distinguish structure, labels, and semantics
2025-12	Adopted 5P folder structure standard	Universal schema for all domains
2025-12	Renamed marketing-activities to marketing-protocols	Align with 5P framework
2025-12	Renamed marketing-team to marketing-players	Accommodate human + AI players
2024-12	Established operations terminology hierarchy	Standardize process documentation
2024-12	Created naming standards document	Single source of truth for terminology

Context

Matrix Thinking — Naming is the resolution of the grid: better names, finer matrix, more gaps revealed
Matrix Thinking: Walk the Pipe — The method: trace flow, map to standard names, arrange into structure, read the gaps
A&ID Template — P&ID nomenclature (FV01, FT01) applied to AI + Crypto systems
Mind the Gap — The philosophy: naming gives gaps coordinates so you can close them
Knowledge Schema — Schemas influence attention; ontology makes them machine-readable
First Principles — The first principle is naming
Process Optimisation — Uses this terminology hierarchy
Data Footprint — The ontology made operational
Work Charts — Capability mapping (who does what)
Marketing Protocols — Reference implementation of 5P structure

Three Layers​

Taxonomy​

Operations Hierarchy​

Content Structure​

5P Structure​

Nomenclature​

Files & Folders​

Frontmatter​

Tags​

Skills​

Word List​

Search Patterns​

Ontology​

Benchmark Context​

Change Log​

Context​