Open Standard

Contribute

The Workpads Standard grows through real implementation experience. Here is how to participate.

The standard is open. You may implement it, extend it, and build proprietary or open-source products on it without permission from Babb.

Conformance and Use

Using the Standard

If your product generates workpad URLs (workpads.me/p#1ag/...): encode according to §5 so any conformant decoder can read the record.

If your product decodes workpad URLs: implement §5 faithfully so records from any conformant encoder are readable.

If your product extends the format: use the reserved field slots and template bytes in §5, or register a deviation via BASICS.

BASICS Conformance

The Workpads Standard conforms to BASICS v0.1.1 at the Core tier. BASICS provides a meta-framework for interoperability claims, deviation registration, and compatibility policy.

If you want a formal conformance claim for your product:

  1. Read §8 — BASICS Conformance Mapping
  2. Create a deviation-registry.md in your repo following the BASICS pattern
  3. Reference workpads-basicsconform/ as a model for the BASICS evidence artifact format

Formal BASICS conformance is not required to implement Workpads. It is a signal to other implementors that your product has a documented interoperability posture.

Ways to Contribute

Report Implementation Deviations

If you are building on the standard and find that something in the spec doesn’t match what works in practice, that is valuable signal. Open a discussion on GitHub describing:

  • Which section(s) are affected
  • What your implementation does differently
  • Why (constraint, error, or deliberate extension)

Deviations found in practice feed the next version of the standard.

Extend via Registered Deviations

The preferred path for extensions is a registered deviation in your own repo, not a fork of the standard. This keeps the interoperability surface clean while allowing you to innovate.

Review and Comment

All normative sections are maintained in workpads-standard. Open issues or pull requests for:

  • Ambiguities in the spec text
  • Missing edge cases
  • Encoding conflicts discovered in implementation

Build Reference Implementations

The ecosystem benefits from implementations on additional platforms. If you build a conformant implementation for a platform not currently covered, publish your BASICS conformance claim and link to it from the GitHub Discussions.

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