NEP Format and Templates

This document will cover:

  • NEP Document Directory
  • NEP Templates
  • NEP Header Preamble
  • NEP Content Format

I. NEP Document Directory #

// NEPs Document Directory
./
└─ NEPS/
|  └─ nep-x/           // `x` is the NEP Number
|  |  ├─ index.md      // main NEP Document in English
|  |  ├─ index.zh.md   // main NEP Document in Chinese
|  |  ├─ image1.png    // image used in NEP
|  |  ├─ image2.jpg    // image used in NEP
|  |  └─ filename.ext  // file used in NEP
|  └─ nep-template/    // this is the NEP Template Folder

NEP Document File #

NEP Doument file is index.md file in it’s directory.

Every NEP should starts with the English version first. Each translation is translated from that English and placed in a new file using index.lang.md format.

Auxiliary Files #

If your NEP requires images, the image files should be included in the same directory of that NEP. When linking to an image in the NEP, use relative links such as image.png. Other files should follow the same pattern.

  • When linking files from another NEP, it is enforced to copy that file from reference NEP directory to the working NEP directory.

  • Files of jpg, jpeg, png, svg format are generally accepted.

  • Files of html, js and other server-side or browser-side executable format are not accepted.

  • If you must include an executable file like js, change the extension to txt instead.

II. NEP Templates #

// NEP Template Directory
./
└─ NEPS/
|  └─ nep-template/       // this is the General NEP Template Folder
|  |  └─ index.md         // this is the General NEP Template Document
|  └─ nep-template-nrc/   // this is the NRC Type NEP Template Folder
|  |  └─ index.md         // this is the NRC Type NEP Template Document
|  └─ nep-x/              // your NEP-X Folder
|  |  └─ index.md         // your NEP-X Document

To use the NEP Template, copy nep-template folder to nep-x folder and start your NEP with nep-x/index.md.

Current available templates:

  • General NEP Template /NEPS/nep-template/

  • NEP Template for Token (NRC) /NEPS/nep-template-nrc/

III. NEP Header Preamble #

Here is an example of NEP Header Preamble, all fields listed in this example are required.

---
NEP: X
Title: "This is the NEP Title"
Authors: "[First Last](mailto:name@domain.ext)"
Discussions: https://url.to.discussions.ext
Status: Draft
Categories: Economic Model
Created: YYYY-MM-DD
---
# NEP Content Starts

1. NEP #

NEP: X

  • required

  • NEP number (this is determined by the NEP editor)

2. Title #

Title: "This is the NEP Title"

  • required

  • NEP title quoted with " "

3. Authors #

Authors: "[First Last](mailto:name@domain.ext)"

  • required

  • A list of the author’s or authors’ name(s) and/or username(s), or name(s) and email(s). Details are below.

Authors Code Examples
# Author with Email
Authors: "[First Last](mailto:name@domain.ext)"

# Author with URL
Authors: "[First Last](https://domain.ext)"

# Multiple Authors
Authors: "[Author 1](author1:name@domain.ext), [Author 2](https://author2.ext), [Author 3](mailto:aurhtor3@domain.ext)"

4. Discussions #

Discussions: https://url.to.discussions.ext

  • required

  • While an NEP is a draft, a discussions-to header will indicate the mailing list or URL where the NEP is being discussed.

  • No Discussions header is necessary if the NEP is being discussed privately with the author and haven’t been submitted to NEPs repo yet.

  • Discussions cannot point to GitHub pull requests.

5. Status #

Status: Draft

  • required

  • WIP, Draft, Public Call, Final etc.

  • See NEP Status for all available status

6. Categories #

Categories: Economic Model

  • required

  • NEP currently has 5 categories: Economic Model, Personnel, Technical, Community Governance and Business

  • This is defined by NEP-0: NEP Genesis.

7. Created #

Created: YYYY-MM-DD

  • required

  • Date for first created in YYYY-MM-DD format

8. Updated #

Updated: YYYY-MM-DD

  • Comma separated list of dates.

  • e.g. 2020-12-23 or 2020-10-01, 2020-05-14, 2019-12-31

9. Types #

Types: Standard
  • NEP currently has 3 types: Standard, NRC and Informational

10. SupersededBy #

SupersededBy: 100

  • The NEP Number of NEP that superseded this NEP.

  • Only NEPs moved to Active, Final and later status can be added as an SupersededBy item.

11. Superseding #

Superseding: 50

  • The NEP Number of NEP that is or is to be superseded by this NEP

  • Only NEPs moved to Active, Final and later status can be added to this field.

  • This field should be added since this NEP is meant to supersede another NEP, even when this NEP is still in WIP status.

Last, Ordering #

The order of NEP Header Preamble Item is not enforced, but it is recommended to use the order as the example below:

 0
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13

---
NEP:
Title:
Authors:
Discussions:
Status:
SupersededBy:
Superseding:
Categories:
Types:
Created:
Updated:
---
# NEP Content Starts

IV. NEP Content Format #

NEP Content should be written in Markdown format. Markdown formatting is widely used in websites and documents, also there were dozens of implementations in many languages and software applications.

CommonMark Spec is a standard for Markdown and adopted by many applications. To see the latest CommonMark Spec please visit https://spec.commonmark.org.

We’ll provide more format examples in this document later.