> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.basemode.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Standards > Protocols that inject when you edit a matching file rather than when you type a keyword, how to see what is loaded, and how to prove one will fire before you rely on it. A standard is a protocol that fires on a file rather than on a prompt. Where a domain matches what you typed, a standard matches what you are about to edit, and it injects on mutating operations rather than on every turn. ```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}} base standards list base standards get midas-security ``` `base std` is the short alias. ## Where they come from ```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}} base standards sync base standards sync --source docs/protocols.md ``` **Why it works.** Standards are authored in a `protocols.md` source and synced into `standards.toml` plus the graph. That is deliberately different from rules, which you add one at a time from the command line: a standard is usually a document that already exists, and the sync is what turns it into something that fires. **The gotcha.** There is no `base standards add`. If you want a new standard, write it into the protocols source and sync. Reaching for `add` and finding nothing is the most common first stumble here. ## Proving one will fire ```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}} base standards test src/auth.rs base standards test src/auth.rs --content "adding a login handler" ``` **Why it works.** This is a dry run of the matcher against a real file. It prints the scores and what would inject, and it writes nothing and sends nothing. `--content` simulates the payload of an actual edit, which matters because a standard can match on what you are writing as well as on which file you are writing it to. **The gotcha.** Test before you rely on one. A standard that does not fire is indistinguishable from a standard that fired and had nothing to say, and this command is the only thing that separates them. ## Seeing what is loaded ```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}} base standards list ``` Every standard with its trigger and annotation counts. A standard with zero triggers will never fire, which is worth noticing before you spend an afternoon wondering why. `base standards get ` shows one in full. ## Where standards fit | Mechanism | Fires on | Configured in | | ------------- | -------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | | Domain rules | Prompt keywords, file keywords, active paths | `domains.toml`, content in the graph | | Standards | A file being edited, on mutating operations | `standards.toml`, from a protocols source | | Star commands | A `*word` you type | `commands.toml` | Three mechanisms, three different moments. Standards are the one that reaches you while you are changing something rather than while you are asking about it. ## Next The keyword-triggered half of the same idea. Every `base standards` verb and flag.