Achievement Guide Standard

Every active or historical achievement guide should use this structure unless a section is not relevant.

Required sections

1. Summary — what the achievement recognises and whether it is active, retired, or restricted.
2. Trigger — the qualifying GitHub action, written without implying undocumented guarantees.
3. Progression or tiers — thresholds, tier names, and the evidence status of each threshold.
4. Eligibility conditions — repository visibility, authorship, review, attribution, sponsorship, or discussion requirements that affect qualification.
5. Award timing — known processing delay, refresh behaviour, and any uncertainty.
6. Verification — how a contributor can confirm the action and badge without exposing private information.
7. Evidence status — classify material claims as Official, Confirmed, Observed, Community-reported, or Unknown.
8. Known limitations and edge cases — disputed behaviour, exclusions, attribution failures, and platform limitations.
9. Troubleshooting — checks to perform when an expected badge or tier does not appear.
10. Responsible participation — legitimate participation guidance consistent with repository policy.
11. History — documented changes, retirement, renaming, or material behaviour changes.
12. References — official sources first, followed by dated reproducible evidence where needed.
13. Last verified — an explicit date and the verification scope.

Evidence rules

• Official GitHub documentation takes precedence over community reports.
• Community-reported thresholds must not be presented as officially guaranteed.
• A screenshot can support an observation but cannot establish causation by itself.
• Conflicting evidence must remain visible until resolved.
• Personal information, private repository content, billing details, and access credentials must be redacted.

Style rules

• Use descriptive headings and concise paragraphs.
• Separate facts from recommendations and unresolved observations.
• State numerical thresholds precisely and attach an evidence classification.
• Link related guides through repository-relative links.
• Ensure tables remain readable on narrow screens.

Completion definition

A guide is considered standardised only when:

• all applicable required sections are present;
• material claims carry an evidence classification;
• internal links pass repository validation;
• the page remains usable with keyboard navigation and at mobile width;
• the verification date is current enough to support the claims being made;
• the guide has been reviewed through a focused pull request.