It works with a text editor and git.
The format adds structure. It never needs an app. Delete every tool and you still have your operation.
the open standard
Run your operation as files anyone can read.
The OaC File Format is how we write a business down: plain markdown in git, with just enough structure that people and AI agents read the same source of truth. This is the whole standard, published in full and free to build on.
read it
The standard, in two files.
One for people, one for machines. These are the exact files we run our own operation on, not a summary written for a website.
oac-file-format.md
The full specification. What the fields mean, how links work, how conformance is graded, and what a reader must never do.
Read the spec →oac-vocabulary.yml
The closed lists a validator reads: the 26 types, the audiences, the link kinds, the topics. Point your own tool at this file.
Read the vocabulary →how it works
Three rules hold it together.
Everything else in the spec follows from these.
Agents find things by reading, not by searching an index.
There is no database in the format. An agent greps. That only works if files say what they are, which is why the metadata block matters.
A type says what a file IS, never what it is ABOUT.
A meeting record about pricing is a transcript with a pricing topic. It is not a 'pricing discussion' type. Break this rule and your list of types grows forever. Ours hit 198 before we fixed it.
conformance
Your repo is never simply wrong.
Most standards give you a pass or a fail. A real business folder would fail on day one, which helps nobody. So conformance is a ladder. You sit on a level, and the level says what a tool can offer you. Tidy up, climb, get more.
| Level | What it takes | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| 0readable | Markdown in git. Any frontmatter parses. | Open it, read it, search it. |
| 1typed | Every file says what it is and who may read it. | Filter by kind. Route by audience. Honour the privacy rule. |
| 2linked | Links between files resolve. Big folders have an index. | Relation map. Impact checks. Faster answers. |
| 3live | Tasks and presence conventions. | Boards, runs and people working together. |
There is one hard rule for anyone writing a tool: it must never refuse a folder. Not for a type it does not know, not for a broken link, not for a version it has never seen. It does the best it can and says which level it found. Without that, every update to this standard would break every business already using it.
the licence
Take it and build on it.
The format is open. Anyone may write a reader, a writer or a checker for it, including to sell. That is the point of publishing it.
The specification is licensed CC BY 4.0. You may copy it, change it and use it commercially. The one condition is that you say where it came from, and say if you changed it.
OaC File Format by OpsCode (https://opscode.ai), used under CC BY 4.0.
The names are a separate thing. 'OpsCode', 'OaC' and 'Operations as Code' are trademarks, and the licence does not hand those over. You are welcome to say your tool implements the OaC File Format. Please do not suggest we endorsed or certified it.
want help applying it
We do this to real businesses.
The standard is free and always will be. If you want your own operation written down this way, that is the work we do. Book 30 minutes and bring the process that only lives in your head.