Content-only showcase of K9 document examples, templates, and rendered output.

What this is

k9-showcase is a documentation and examples repository for the K9 configuration format. It contains no executable code — only:

• Human-readable explanations of K9’s three-level security model

• Worked example K9 files at each level

• Integration guides for K9 tooling

• Rendered HTML output from the content pages

K9 is the hyperpolymath configuration and policy format with three graduated security levels:

Level	File type	What it permits
Kennel	.k9	Pure data. No evaluation, no execution. Equivalent to Cargo.toml.
Yard	.k9.ncl (unevaluated)	Nickel contracts for typed validation. No shell access.
Hunt	.k9.ncl (cryptographically signed)	Executable recipes. Requires a valid signature — deliberate trust gate.

Quick start

# Run the test suite (verifies content structure)
deno test --allow-read tests/

# Or via justfile
just default

There is no application to run — browse content/ or output/ directly.

Content layout

File	What it explains
content/index.md	The three-level model, "What is K9?", level badges overview
content/getting-started.md	Step-by-step: write a first .k9 file, add Nickel contracts, sign for Hunt
content/examples.md	Annotated K9 files at each level. Includes a complete Kennel-level project.k9 for panic-attacker.
content/integrations.md	Tooling: tree-sitter-k9, IANA media type, freedesktop.org MIME, VS Code
content/security-levels.md	Deep dive on the trust model and signing gate
output/	Rendered HTML (from content/ via template.html)
template.html	HTML template used to produce output/ pages

K9 tooling ecosystem

Repo	Purpose
tree-sitter-k9	Generated C parser; editor integration (Neovim, Helix, Zed)
k9-rs	Rust reference implementation
k9_ex	Elixir implementation
k9_gleam	Gleam implementation (BEAM + JS)
format-registrations	IANA application/vnd.k9 registration + freedesktop.org MIME XML
standards	K9 language specification

See EXPLAINME for an honest map from each claim to its implementation evidence and caveats.

License

MPL-2.0. See LICENSE.

Author

Jonathan D.A. Jewell
j.d.a.jewell@open.ac.uk