trsdn · trsdn · Sep 17, 2026 · Sep 17, 2026
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 # The badge in .github/badges/ is generated from this file. Change the evidence
 # first, then this record, then regenerate. Never the other way round.
 
-standard_version: "1.11.1"
-assessed_on: "2026-09-02"
+standard_version: "1.12.0"
+assessed_on: "2026-09-17"
 state: "Healthy"
 evidence: "docs/self-assessment.md"
 
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ criteria:
   W06: na
   W07: na
   W08: na
+  W09: na
   A01: na
   A02: na
   A03: na

@@ -6,6 +6,21 @@ recorded here.
 Versions follow the compatibility policy in the
 [Repository Quality Standard](docs/repository-quality-standard.md).
 
+## 1.12.0 - 2026-09-17
+
+- Retired `W05` and `W06`, which required every published site to vendor
+  **Instrument Workshop**, the shared design language. Added `W09`: a site's
+  visual design must be made for the project it describes, not left at a
+  framework default or reused unchanged from another project. Sites may still
+  use Instrument Workshop where it fits; nothing requires or recommends it as
+  the default any longer.
+  [Site Design](docs/repository-quality-standard.md#site-design) replaces the
+  former Design Language subsection. See
+  [decision 0013](docs/decisions/0013-sites-are-designed-not-templated.md).
+- Released as minor: retiring a criterion narrows applicability and adding one
+  widens the catalog, and neither can turn a recorded `Pass` into a `Fail`
+  under [Versioning And Compatibility](docs/repository-quality-standard.md#versioning-and-compatibility).
+
 ## 1.11.1 - 2026-09-02
 
 - Made

@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+# 0013 - Sites are designed for the project, not assembled from a shared kit
+
+- Status: Accepted
+- Date: 2026-09-17
+
+## Context
+
+[Decision 0009](0009-published-sites-and-content-boundaries.md) required every
+published site to vendor **Instrument Workshop**, the shared, privately
+maintained design language, on the reasoning that a design language earns its
+value from consistent use and that contrast, focus, target size, and density
+are better decided once than re-litigated per site.
+
+Rebuilding `OpenPromptr`'s site surfaced what that consistency actually cost.
+The page carried the same panel chrome, badge shapes, and callout treatment as
+every other site built from the same two stylesheets, regardless of what
+`OpenPromptr` is — a native macOS teleprompter mirror, not the kind of project
+the shared components were shaped around. The result read as competent and
+generic at once: correct against `W05`, and indistinguishable from a site for
+a different product entirely. A visitor learned nothing about `OpenPromptr`
+from the page that the page's own words didn't already say; the design carried
+no information.
+
+`W05`'s trade was consistency for distinctiveness, made once for every project
+in the estate. That trade was reasonable when it was written and only one or
+two sites existed to test it against. It stops being reasonable once "look
+like they come from the same hand" is read literally: nine-plus unrelated
+products — a teleprompter tool, a scrum aid, a Windows markdown viewer, an
+about-me page — sharing one visual identity is not a property a reader values,
+it is a signal that nobody spent a design decision on any of them individually.
+
+## Decision
+
+Retire `W05` and `W06` in place, keeping both identifiers per [decision
+0001](0001-criterion-identifiers-are-permanent.md). Append `W09`: a site's
+visual design must be made for the project it describes, evidenced by a look at
+the page rather than a vendored file. The [Site
+Design](../repository-quality-standard.md#site-design) subsection replaces the
+former Design Language subsection and drops the Instrument Workshop mandate; a
+site may still use it where it genuinely fits, but nothing requires it, and
+nothing recommends it as the default.
+
+`W07` — no third-party resources, no cookies, no analytics — is untouched. It
+was never about the design language; it applies to whatever a site's design
+turns out to need.
+
+## Alternatives considered
+
+**Narrow `W05`'s wording in place, rather than retiring it.** Reads where a
+reader already looks, and needed no new identifier. Rejected on version impact:
+under [Versioning And Compatibility](../repository-quality-standard.md#versioning-and-compatibility),
+narrowing a criterion's meaning so that a recorded `Pass` could become a `Fail`
+is a major change, and a site that vendored Instrument Workshop in good faith
+under the old wording should not have its recorded result invalidated by this
+one. Retiring the old criterion and appending a new one buys the same outcome
+at a minor bump — the same pattern [decision 0012](0012-history-on-the-default-branch-is-protected.md)
+used for the same reason.
+
+**Leave `W05`/`W06` as optional rather than retired.** An optional criterion
+with no stated condition for when it applies is not assessable — nothing in
+[Baseline](../repository-quality-standard.md#baseline) or elsewhere in this
+standard is graded "maintainer's choice", because a result that can't be
+wrong isn't evidence of anything. Retiring the pair and stating the new
+requirement as `W09` keeps every Published Site criterion falsifiable.
+
+**Replace Instrument Workshop with a second shared design language instead of
+removing the requirement.** Would repeat the same trade under a different
+name. The actual problem was requiring any one visual identity across
+unrelated products, not which identity was required.
+
+## Consequences
+
+Recorded `Pass` results for `W05` and `W06` in any repository's conformance
+record stay valid for the standard version they name — [decision
+0001](0001-criterion-identifiers-are-permanent.md) and the versioning policy
+both hold. Neither criterion is assessed again after this version; a
+repository's next conformance pass drops them and picks up `W09`
+unassessed, which is due for reassessment rather than a regression.
+
+A site that still vendors Instrument Workshop keeps rendering exactly as
+before and is not asked to change; `W09` is not failed by using it, only by a
+site with no design intent behind it at all — an unstyled scaffold, a
+framework default left untouched, or another project's site carried over
+without adapting it. `OpenPromptr`'s rebuilt site, and the reasoning that
+produced it, is the worked example `W09` is checked against until a second one
+exists.
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Repository Quality Standard
 
-- Version: 1.11.1
-- Last reviewed: 2026-09-02
+- Version: 1.12.0
+- Last reviewed: 2026-09-17
 - Review cadence: every six months, even when nothing changes
 
 This document is the public source of truth for repository quality across
@@ -488,10 +488,11 @@ Record the rationale rather than leaving the profile unclaimed.
 | <a id="w02"></a>W02 | The repository and the site link to each other | Repository homepage field, and a repository link in the site's persistent navigation or footer |
 | <a id="w03"></a>W03 | The landing view states what the project is, who it is for, and its current status before any scrolling | Site source |
 | <a id="w04"></a>W04 | The site carries the content baseline | [Site Content Baseline](#site-content-baseline) |
-| <a id="w05"></a>W05 | The site uses the shared design language rather than ad-hoc styling | [Design Language](#design-language) |
-| <a id="w06"></a>W06 | The design language version the site was built against is recorded | Version note, manifest entry, or vendored file header |
+| <a id="w05"></a>W05 | Retired 2026-09-17 (standard 1.12.0) — the shared-design-language mandate is replaced by `W09`; see [decision 0013](decisions/0013-sites-are-designed-not-templated.md) | None — retired |
+| <a id="w06"></a>W06 | Retired 2026-09-17 (standard 1.12.0) — recording a vendored design-language version is no longer required; see [decision 0013](decisions/0013-sites-are-designed-not-templated.md) | None — retired |
 | <a id="w07"></a>W07 | The site loads no third-party resources, sets no cookies, and carries no analytics | Site source and a documented network review |
 | <a id="w08"></a>W08 | The site states each fact once and links to the repository for depth | [Content Boundaries](#content-boundaries) |
+| <a id="w09"></a>W09 | The site's visual design is made for this project, not left at a framework or template default | [Site Design](#site-design) |
 
 A site is a shipped user interface, so [Accessibility](#accessibility) applies to
 it in full. Those criteria are not restated here.
@@ -527,41 +528,27 @@ started to duplicate the repository, which `W08` forbids.
 A site may be a single page. Nothing in this section requires more than one, and
 a single honest page beats a navigation tree over empty sections.
 
-### Design Language
-
-The shared design language is **Instrument Workshop**. Sites use it rather than
-inventing styling per repository, so that the projects look like they come from
-the same hand and so that accessibility decisions — contrast, focus, target
-size, density — are made once rather than re-litigated per site.
-
-It is consumed by copying two stylesheets into the repository and loading the
-tokens first:
-
-```html
-<link rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/core.tokens.css">
-<link rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/instrument-workshop.css">
-```
-
-`iw-root` goes on `<body>`, the theme is an attribute on `<html>`, and density is
-an attribute on any container. There is no package to install, no build step, and
-no framework or JavaScript requirement.
-
-Copying rather than depending is deliberate, and copying is expressly permitted.
-The design system is maintained separately and privately, so a public site cannot
-resolve it at build time. The stylesheets may be vendored into public
-repositories, which means the design language becomes visible in every site built
-from it — that is accepted, because a design language earns its value from
-consistent use rather than from being hidden. A vendored copy also means a site
-keeps rendering when the source repository moves, which is the same property
-`P09` wants from a statistics card.
-
-`W06` exists because a vendored copy has no version unless one is written down.
-Record which version was copied, in a manifest, a note, or a comment at the top
-of the vendored file. Without it, nobody can tell whether a site is three
-revisions behind or current.
-
-Deviating is allowed where the design language has no answer, and the deviation
-is recorded. Deviating because it was quicker is a `Fail`.
+### Site Design
+
+There is no shared design language every site is required to use, and no
+default one to reach for. `W09` asks whether a visitor can tell the page was
+built for what it describes, or whether it is unstyled HTML, a framework's
+default theme, or another project's site reused unchanged. That test is
+judgement, not a checklist, so what counts as evidence is a brief, honest look
+at the page rather than a single artifact.
+
+Colour, type, and layout are chosen for the project's own subject matter, and
+the accessibility fundamentals that a shared system used to settle once —
+contrast, visible keyboard focus, a legible type scale, sane behaviour down to
+a phone width — are handled per site instead. `W07` still applies in full: a
+distinctive site self-hosts its own fonts, images, and scripts rather than
+reaching for a font CDN or an icon service.
+
+This replaces the shared design language, **Instrument Workshop**, that earlier
+versions of this standard required every site to vendor (`W05`, `W06`; both
+retired — see [decision 0013](decisions/0013-sites-are-designed-not-templated.md)).
+A site is not penalised for still using it: nothing here forbids vendoring it
+where it genuinely fits, only the requirement that every site do so by default.
 
 ## Content Boundaries
 

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Self-Assessment: trsdn/.github
 
-- Standard version: 1.11.1
-- Assessed on: 2026-09-02
+- Standard version: 1.12.0
+- Assessed on: 2026-09-17
 - State: **Healthy**
 - Record: [`.github/conformance.yml`](../.github/conformance.yml)
 
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ right to be ignored.
 
 ## Not applicable
 
-**Published Site `W01`-`W08`.** This repository defines the standard; it does not
+**Published Site `W01`-`W09`.** This repository defines the standard; it does not
 ship a product. Everyone who reads the standard reads it while working inside a
 repository — applying it, citing a criterion in an issue, or acting on it as an
 agent — and a page in front of it would add a surface to maintain while answering

@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 # Generated by scripts/standard.py from
 # docs/repository-quality-standard.md. Do not edit by hand.
 
-version: "1.11.1"
-last_reviewed: "2026-09-02"
+version: "1.12.0"
+last_reviewed: "2026-09-17"
 
 prefixes:
   A: "Archived"
@@ -300,12 +300,12 @@ criteria:
     evidence: "[Site Content Baseline](#site-content-baseline)"
   - id: "W05"
     section: "Published Sites"
-    requirement: "The site uses the shared design language rather than ad-hoc styling"
-    evidence: "[Design Language](#design-language)"
+    requirement: "Retired 2026-09-17 (standard 1.12.0) — the shared-design-language mandate is replaced by `W09`; see [decision 0013](decisions/0013-sites-are-designed-not-templated.md)"
+    evidence: "None — retired"
   - id: "W06"
     section: "Published Sites"
-    requirement: "The design language version the site was built against is recorded"
-    evidence: "Version note, manifest entry, or vendored file header"
+    requirement: "Retired 2026-09-17 (standard 1.12.0) — recording a vendored design-language version is no longer required; see [decision 0013](decisions/0013-sites-are-designed-not-templated.md)"
+    evidence: "None — retired"
   - id: "W07"
     section: "Published Sites"
     requirement: "The site loads no third-party resources, sets no cookies, and carries no analytics"
@@ -314,6 +314,10 @@ criteria:
     section: "Published Sites"
     requirement: "The site states each fact once and links to the repository for depth"
     evidence: "[Content Boundaries](#content-boundaries)"
+  - id: "W09"
+    section: "Published Sites"
+    requirement: "The site's visual design is made for this project, not left at a framework or template default"
+    evidence: "[Site Design](#site-design)"
   - id: "G01"
     section: "Agent Readiness"
     requirement: "Agent-facing instructions exist at a discoverable, tool-neutral location"

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 # The badge is generated from this file. Change the evidence first, then this
 # record, then regenerate. Never the other way round.
 
-standard_version: "1.11.1"
+standard_version: "1.12.0"
 assessed_on: "YYYY-MM-DD"
 state: "Needs work"
 evidence: "docs/self-assessment.md"
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ criteria:
   W06: unknown
   W07: unknown
   W08: unknown
+  W09: unknown
   G01: unknown
   G02: unknown
   G03: unknown