diff --git a/.standards.yml b/.standards.yml
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+version: 1.1.0
+maturity: high-load-critical
+source: krav01/dev-standards
+
+controls:
+  reusable_ci: false
+  lint: true
+  vulncheck: true
+  race: true
+  database_integration: true
+  fuzz: false
+  architecture_guard: false
+  dependency_review: true
+  codeql: true
+  dependabot: true
+  docker_smoke: true
+  performance_benchmarks: true
+  migration_roundtrip: true
+  backup_restore: true
+  failure_recovery: true
+
+exceptions:
+  - control: reusable_ci
+    reason: Public repository cannot call reusable workflows from private dev-standards.
+    revisit: Repository becomes private or shared workflow source becomes publicly accessible.
+  - control: standards_drift
+    reason: Public repository cannot call the private reusable drift workflow.
+    revisit: Repository becomes private or shared drift workflow source becomes publicly accessible.
+  - control: fuzz
+    reason: No parser or invariant-heavy surface currently requires a dedicated fuzz gate.
+    revisit: Add when parsing or invariant complexity increases.
+  - control: architecture_guard
+    reason: Current package structure is compact and existing review/tests provide sufficient protection.
+    revisit: Add when package boundaries or cross-layer dependencies expand.
diff --git a/docs/standards-adoption.md b/docs/standards-adoption.md
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+# Development standards adoption
+
+This project adopts `krav01/dev-standards` baseline version `1.1.0` at the `high-load-critical` maturity level.
+
+## Why high-load-critical
+
+Although this repository is portfolio-only and not a payment processor, its correctness model includes metering, durable usage state, idempotency/replay behavior, PostgreSQL transactions, recovery, and migration safety. Those properties justify the stricter baseline.
+
+## Existing controls retained
+
+The project already has stronger local verification than the shared baseline in several areas:
+- unit tests with race detector;
+- `go vet`, `golangci-lint`, and `govulncheck`;
+- real PostgreSQL integration tests;
+- migration up/down/up verification;
+- Docker smoke tests;
+- restart/replay durability checks;
+- PostgreSQL outage/recovery validation;
+- backup/restore testing;
+- populated schema upgrade tests;
+- performance benchmark artifacts;
+- CodeQL, Dependency Review, and Dependabot.
+
+These local checks remain authoritative because they encode project-specific failure modes that a generic reusable workflow cannot safely replace.
+
+## Shared workflow exception
+
+This repository is public while `krav01/dev-standards` is private. GitHub Actions does not permit a public caller to use a reusable workflow from a private repository. For that reason:
+- reusable central CI is not enabled;
+- central standards drift workflow is not enabled;
+- the adopted baseline version is recorded explicitly in `.standards.yml`.
+
+## Upgrade process
+
+Standards upgrades use a dedicated PR:
+1. review the `dev-standards` changelog;
+2. compare new rules against existing local checks;
+3. update `.standards.yml`;
+4. add only missing applicable controls;
+5. preserve stronger project-specific checks;
+6. document intentional exceptions with a revisit trigger.