Awesome Standards
A curated list of technical standards, they may be called requests for comments, proposals, drafts, notes, specifications, or something else.
Contents
Web Technologies
- IETF RFCs - Publication in a series from the principal technical development and standards-setting bodies for the Internet, most prominently the IETF.
- BCPs - Best Current Practice, sub-series of the RFC document series.
- ECMA International Standards - Standards for information and communication systems.
- W3C - W3C publishes a range of technical reports (Standards and supporting Notes) which help move the web forward.
- W3C WAI - Strategies, standards, and supporting resources to help you make the Web more accessible to people with disabilities.
- WHATWG - Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group, founded by individuals of leading Web browser vendors.
- Unicode Standards - Text encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium.
APIs
- GraphQL Spec - Specification for GraphQL, a query language and execution engine.
- Protobuf Spec - Protocol Buffers are language-neutral, platform-neutral extensible mechanisms for serializing structured data.
- gRPC - This document serves as a detailed description for an implementation of gRPC carried over HTTP2 framing.
- XML-RPC - Remote procedure call protocol which uses XML to encode its calls and HTTP as a transport mechanism.
- JSON-RPC - Stateless, light-weight remote procedure call protocol.
- Apache Avro - Serialization format for record data, and first choice for streaming data pipelines.
- Apache Thrift - Interface Definition Language and binary communication protocol used for defining and creating services for programming languages.
- OpenRPC Spec - The OpenRPC Specification defines a standard, programming language-agnostic interface description for JSON-RPC 2.0 APIs.
- OpenAPI Spec - The OpenAPI Specification (OAS) defines a standard, language-agnostic interface to HTTP APIs.
- API Blueprint Spec - A markdown based language for describing APIs with interactive documentation support.
- RAML Spec - RESTful API Modeling Language is a YAML based language for describing static APIs (but not REST APIs).
- JSON Schema - Standard providing a format for what JSON data is required for a given application and how to interact with it.
- AsyncAPI Spec - This specification allows you to create machine-readable definitions of your asynchronous APIs.
- OpenMessaging Spec - Vendor-neutral and language-independent, aimed to develop messaging and streaming applications across heterogeneous systems.
- CloudEvents Spec - A specification for describing event data in a common way.
- HATEOAS - Hypermedia as the engine of application state is a constraint of the REST software architectural style.
- HAL - Convention for defining hypermedia such as links to external resources within JSON or XML code.
- JSON:API - A specification for building APIs in JSON, defines links and actions.
- JSON-LD - JSON for Linked Data is a standard for hyperlinks in JSON, does not address actions.
- Ion - Simple and intuitive JSON-based hypermedia type for REST.
- Hydra - Builds on top of JSON-LD to add definition of actions.
- Siren - Structured Interface for Representing Entities, super-rad hypermedia, defines links and actions.
- Collection+JSON - JSON-based read/write hypermedia-type designed, defines links and actions.
- Odata - A protocol for querying and updating data using RESTful APIs, with rich query capabilities.
- JSEND - Specification for a simple, no-frills, JSON based format for application-level communication.
- Google API Design Guide - A general design guide for networked APIs provided by Google.
- Microsoft REST API Guidelines - Repository contains a collection of documents and related materials.
- Zalando RESTful Guidelines - A model set of guidelines for RESTful APIs and Events, created by Zalando.
- API Stylebook - Collections of resources for API Design from other companies guidelines.
- API Security Checklist - Checklist of the most important security countermeasures.
Programming Languages
- ECMAScript Proposals - Ecma TC39 (Technical Committee 39) is responsible for evolving the ECMAScript programming language and authoring the specification.
- PEPs - Python Enhancement Proposals for language improvements.
- PHP FIG - Standards proposed and approved by PHP Framework Interop Group.
- Rust RFCs - Proposals to evolve the Rust language.
- Swift Evolution - Proposals for changes to the Swift language.
- KEEP - Kotlin Evolution and Enhancement Process.
- SIPs - Scala Improvement Proposals.
- GHC Proposals - Compiler and language changes for Haskell/GHC.
- EEPs - Erlang Enhancement Proposals.
- JSR - Java Specification Requests to standardize Java.
- Java SE Specs - Java Language and JVM specifications for Java by Oracle.
- Go Proposals - Design discussions for Go language evolution.
- GoLang Spec - The Go Programming Language Specification.
- Dart Design - Design of the Dart language.
- C# Design - C# Language Design Proposals.
- F# Design - F# Language Design RFCs.
- Zig Proposals - Issues with Proposal label in Zig repository.
- C Standards - ISO/IEC standards for the C programming language.
- C++ Standards - ISO/IEC standards for C++.
- CEPs - Coq Enhancement Proposals.
- OCaml RFCs - Design discussions about the OCaml language.
- SRFI - Scheme Requests for Implementation.
- Scheme Standards - Revised Report on Scheme and other standards.
- CDR - Common Lisp Document Repository.
- PPCs - Proposed Perl Changes is proposals to change the Perl language.
- DIPs - D language Improvement Proposals.
- GEPs - Groovy Enhancement Proposals and Issues tracked in Jira.
- npm RFCs - Change proposals for npm.
- Yarn RFCs - Proposals for improvements in Yarn package manager.
- React RFCs - Change requests for React.
- Vue RFCs - Suggestions for major changes to Vue.js.
- Svelte RFCs - Svelte framework enhancement discussions.
- Ember RFCs - Standards for Ember.js framework evolution.
- ESLint RFCs - Change requests for ESLint.
- React Native RFCs - React Native enhancement discussions.
- Nix RFCs - The Nix community RFCs.
- DEPs - Django Enhancement Proposals.
- CEPs - Conda Enhancement Proposals.
- SLEPs - Scikit-learn Enhancement Proposals.
- JEPs - Jupyter Ecosystem Enhancement Proposals.
- JEPs - Jenkins Enhancement Proposals.
- REPs - Enhancement proposals for ROS robotics framework.
- KEPs - Kubernetes Enhancement Proposals.
- HIPs - Helm Improvement Proposals.
- OTEPs - OpenTelemetry Enhancement Proposals.
- GIPs - Godot (Multi-platform 2D and 3D game engine) Improvement Proposals.
- Bazel Proposals - Bazel proposals and design documents.
- Conventional Commits - A specification for adding human and machine readable meaning to commit messages.
- Compose Specification - The Compose Specification is developer focused for defining cloud and platform agnostic container-based applications.
- Fluent Specs - This repository contains the specification, the reference implementation of the parser and the documentation for Fluent.
- [x]it! - A plain-text file format for todos and check lists.
- SPDX Spec - The System Package Data Exchange Specification.
- HeadVer Spec - SemVer compatible version specification that has {head}.{yearweek}.{build} system.
- SemVer Spec - Semantic Versioning Specification.
- CalVer Spec - Calendar Versioning Specification.
- OpenAutoComplete Spec - CLI autocomplete specification.
Decentralized Systems
- BIPs - Bitcoin Improvement Proposals.
- EIPs - Ethereum Improvement Proposals.
- ZIPs - Zcash Improvement Proposals.
- NEPs - NEAR Protocol Specifications and Standards.
- BOLTs - Basis of Lightning Technology (Lightning Network Specifications).
- BEPs - BitTorrent Enhancement Proposals.
- BTIPs - BitTorrent File System Improvement Proposals.
- SLIPs - SatoshiLabs Improvement Proposals.
- YIPs - Yearn Finance Improvement Proposals.
- AIPs - Aave Improvement Proposals.
- Optimism Specs - Optimism Stack Specifications.
- PIPs - Polygon Improvement Proposals.
- SIPs - Synthetix Improvement Proposals.
- Fuel Specs - Specifications for the Fuel protocol and the FuelVM.
- Filecoin Specs - Filecoin protocol specification.
- CAIPs - Chain Agnostic Improvement Proposals.
- AIPs - Aptos Improvement Proposals.
- HIPs - Helium Improvement Proposals.
- MIPs - Maker Improvement Proposals.
- SNIPs - Starknet Improvement Proposals.
- Nervos Network RFCs - Proposals, standards and documentations related to Nervos Network.
- IPIP - InterPlanetary Improvement Proposals, technical specifications for the IPFS protocol stack.
- Tor Specs - Tor Specifications including proposals.
- I2P Specs - I2P Specification Documents including proposals.
- LibP2P Specs - Technical specifications for the libp2p networking stack.
Cybersecurity and Cryptography
- NIST - National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States.
- FIPS - Federal Information Processing Standards of the United States.
- PKCS - Public Key Cryptography Standards is group of standards devised and published by RSA Security LLC.
- FIDO Specifications - Authentication standards that “help reduce the world’s over-reliance on passwords”.
- OWASP MASVS - Mobile Application Security Verification Standard is the industry standard for mobile app security.
Operating Systems
- POSIX Standards - The Portable Operating System Interface is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems.
- Windows API (WinAPI) - Foundational API that allows a computer program to access the features of the Microsoft Windows OS.
- LSB - Linux Standard Base.
- SUS - Single UNIX Specification.
- X/Open Portability Guide (XPG) - A precursor to POSIX and the Single UNIX Specification.
- UEFI Specifications - Unified Extensible Firmware Interface is a specification for the firmware architecture of a computing platform.
- FHS - The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard is reference describing the conventions used for the layout of Unix-like systems.
- LUKS - The Linux Unified Key Setup is a disk encryption specification.
- OVF (Open Virtualization Format) - OS images for virtualized environments.
- KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) - OS-level virtualization in Linux.
- OCI (Open Container Initiative) - Standards for OS containers like Docker.
- D-Bus - D-Bus Specification.
Electronics and Hardware
- IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
- PCI Standards - The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
- HDMI Specifications - High-Definition Multimedia Interface is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data.
- Bluetooth Core Specifications - Short-range wireless technology standard.
Databases and Storage
- CEPs - Cassandra Enhancement Proposals.
- SPIPs - Spark project improvement proposals.
Telecommunications
- ITU-T - International Telecommunication Union.
- ETSI - European Telecommunications Standards Institute.
General
these are a series of standards whose standards can simultaneously relate to different topics
- ISO - International standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries.
- IEC - International standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as “electrotechnology”.
- ANSI - Private nonprofit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States.
Region Specific
the use of these standards is specific to certain regions
- BS - British Standards: Standards published by the BSI Group, the UK’s National Standards Body (NSB). They provide guidelines for quality, safety, and sustainability across various sectors.
- CEN - European Committee for Standardization: Develops European Standards (ENs) to harmonize technical specifications and promote trade across Europe.
- DIN - Deutsches Institut für Normung: German Institute for Standardization, which develops national and international standards for a wide range of industries.
- AFNOR - Association française de normalisation: France’s National Standardization Office.
- NSAI - National Standards Authority of Ireland: Ireland’s official standards body.
- CSA Group - Canadian Standards Association: Develops standards to address safety, sustainability, and performance for Canada and global markets.
- SII - Standards Institution of Israel: National body for standards and certification.
- NOM - Normas Oficiales Mexicanas: Official Mexican standards governing the safety, health and quality of goods and services.
- ABNT - Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas: Brazilian National Standards Organization.
- SS - Singapore Standards: Organization handling trade and technology standards.
- JIS - Japanese Industrial Standards: Specifications published by the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC) to ensure product quality and safety in Japan.
- KATS - Korean Agency for Technology and Standards: Organization for developing standards across various sectors.
- CNS - Chinese National Standards: Taiwan’s official standards, administered by the Bureau of Standards, Metrology, and Inspection.
- GB - Guobiao Standards: China’s national standards, including technical and industry-specific regulations.
- GOST - Russian National Standards: State standards developed by Rosstandart to regulate industries and ensure quality and compatibility in Russia.
- TCVN - Vietnamese National Standards: Standards published by the Directorate for Standards, Metrology, and Quality of Vietnam to regulate local and international trade.
- BIS - Bureau of Indian Standards: National standards for industry, products, and services.
- PSQCA - Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority: Organization responsible for developing and certifying standards.
- TIS - Thai Industrial Standards: National standards for Thailand.