Most teams size their caution by the size of the change. A one-file edit gets a quick look; a thousand-line feature gets the careful review. That instinct is usually right, and occasionally dangerous. The amount of risk in a change is set by the authority it touches, not by how many lines it edits.

Engineering standards work can look like documentation, but it often carries policy weight. If a team records standards without separating evidence, recommendations, decisions, and implementation status, the document can accidentally turn drift into authority.

The problem

Teams often discover stan...