Best Practices — A One-Stop Shop for Human Knowledge

What This Repo Is

This repository is a comprehensive, structured knowledge base covering every major domain of human knowledge and practice — organized through a best-practices lens.

The goal is not an encyclopedia of facts. It is a living reference for how to do things right across all disciplines: from engineering and medicine to governance, the arts, and personal life. Every entry should answer the question: "What does good look like here?"

This repo is intended to be useful to humans and LLMs alike. If you are an AI agent reading this, your job is to contribute knowledge that is:

• Accurate — grounded in established standards, research, and expert consensus
• Actionable — focused on principles, guidelines, checklists, patterns, and anti-patterns
• Organized — placed in the correct category/subcategory folder
• Durable — timeless fundamentals over trends (note emerging topics where relevant)

Philosophy

"Best practices" means the established, proven, or consensus-backed way of doing something in a given field — not opinion, not preference, but the distilled wisdom of practitioners.

This repo treats all domains of human knowledge as equally worthy of documentation. A best practice in woodworking deserves the same rigor as one in software engineering or surgery.

Structure

The repo is organized into 10 top-level domains, each containing discipline-specific subdirectories.

best-practices/
│
├── sciences/
│   ├── mathematics_and_logic
│   ├── physics
│   ├── chemistry
│   ├── biology_and_life_sciences
│   ├── earth_and_environmental_sciences
│   ├── astronomy_and_cosmology
│   ├── cognitive_science_and_neuroscience
│   ├── psychology
│   ├── sociology_and_anthropology
│   ├── linguistics_and_semiotics
│   └── economics
│
├── engineering/
│   ├── software_engineering
│   ├── hardware_engineering
│   ├── electrical_engineering
│   ├── mechanical_engineering
│   ├── chemical_engineering
│   ├── civil_and_structural_engineering
│   ├── industrial_engineering
│   ├── aerospace_engineering
│   ├── biomedical_engineering
│   ├── environmental_engineering
│   ├── nuclear_engineering
│   ├── materials_science_and_engineering
│   ├── systems_engineering
│   └── robotics_and_automation
│
├── trades_and_crafts/
│   ├── construction
│   ├── plumbing
│   ├── woodworking
│   ├── hvac
│   ├── welding_and_metalworking
│   ├── automotive_and_diesel
│   ├── electrical_trades
│   ├── agriculture_and_farming
│   ├── culinary_arts_and_food_science
│   ├── textile_and_fabrication
│   ├── masonry_and_stonework
│   └── painting_and_finishing
│
├── medicine_and_health/
│   ├── clinical_medicine
│   ├── surgery
│   ├── pharmacy_and_pharmacology
│   ├── nursing_and_patient_care
│   ├── public_health_and_epidemiology
│   ├── mental_health_and_psychiatry
│   ├── nutrition_science
│   ├── genetics_and_genomics
│   ├── dentistry
│   ├── veterinary_medicine
│   ├── emergency_and_trauma_care
│   └── physical_and_occupational_therapy
│
├── business_and_economics/
│   ├── entrepreneurship_and_startups
│   ├── management_and_leadership
│   ├── finance_and_accounting
│   ├── marketing_and_sales
│   ├── operations_and_supply_chain
│   ├── human_resources
│   ├── real_estate
│   ├── law_and_contracts
│   └── strategy_and_decision_making
│
├── governance_and_law/
│   ├── constitutional_and_civil_law
│   ├── criminal_justice
│   ├── international_law
│   ├── public_policy_and_administration
│   ├── military_and_defense
│   ├── diplomacy_and_international_relations
│   └── ethics_in_governance
│
├── arts_and_humanities/
│   ├── visual_arts_and_design
│   ├── music_and_audio
│   ├── literature_and_writing
│   ├── architecture
│   ├── film_and_media_production
│   ├── theater_and_performing_arts
│   ├── philosophy
│   ├── history
│   ├── religion_and_theology
│   ├── ethics_and_moral_philosophy
│   └── cultural_studies
│
├── environment_and_sustainability/
│   ├── climate_science_and_policy
│   ├── conservation_and_ecology
│   ├── renewable_energy
│   ├── water_and_resource_management
│   ├── urban_and_regional_planning
│   ├── waste_management
│   └── sustainable_agriculture
│
├── technology_and_information/
│   ├── information_technology
│   ├── cybersecurity_and_privacy
│   ├── data_science_and_ai
│   ├── telecommunications_and_networking
│   ├── digital_media_and_content
│   └── blockchain_and_distributed_systems
│
└── personal_and_interpersonal/
    ├── physical_health_and_fitness
    ├── mental_and_emotional_health
    ├── relationships_and_communication
    ├── parenting_and_child_development
    ├── personal_finance
    ├── career_development_and_education
    ├── safety_and_emergency_preparedness
    └── legal_literacy_and_civic_participation

Content Guidelines (for contributors and AI agents)

What belongs in each subdirectory

Each subdirectory should contain markdown files covering:

• Core principles — the foundational rules and values of the discipline
• Standards & frameworks — established industry or academic standards
• Common patterns — proven approaches and methodologies
• Anti-patterns — what NOT to do, and why
• Checklists — actionable step-by-step references
• Glossary — key terminology defined clearly

File naming convention

Use lowercase with underscores. Be descriptive.

core_principles.md
safety_standards.md
common_mistakes.md
getting_started.md

Tone and style

• Write for a knowledgeable generalist — assume intelligence, not prior expertise
• Prefer concise, scannable content: headers, bullets, tables
• Cite standards bodies, research, or authoritative sources where applicable
• Avoid opinion — if something is contested, say so and present the range of views

Scope boundaries

• In scope: Established best practices, standards, frameworks, principles, methodologies
• Out of scope: News, current events, product reviews, marketing content, pure theory with no practical application

Install as an AI Agent Skill

npm install @tyler.given/best-practices

This will:

1. Install the best-practices skill into detected AI tool directories (~/.copilot/skills/, ~/.claude/skills/)
2. Inject AI-human interaction defaults into ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (idempotently)
3. Ship all currently populated domain content (technology & information)

Interactive Domain Setup

npx @tyler.given/best-practices setup

Choose which domains to install to your AI agent skills directories. Re-run anytime to change your selection.

Contributing

1. Find the correct top-level/subdiscipline/ directory
2. Create or edit a .md file with a clear, descriptive name
3. Follow the content guidelines above
4. If a discipline is missing entirely, propose it — the structure is intentionally extensible
5. Use feature branches and draft PRs — never push directly to main
6. Use Conventional Commits: feat:, fix:, docs:, chore:, etc.

Vision

This repository aims to be the most comprehensive, well-organized, and practically useful collection of human best practices ever assembled. Not a textbook. Not a wiki. A field guide to doing things right — across every domain humans have ever mastered.