GovernanceAgent systems topic

Governance

Agent governance assigns ownership and policy across instructions, models, tools, data, evaluation, permissions, releases, incidents, and vendors. It should make authority and evidence visible without turning every low-risk improvement into a centralized bottleneck.

Apply the lifecycleReview sources

Questions to answer

Resolve these before adding tools, frameworks, or automation.

  • Who owns behavior, data, tools, releases, incidents, and user recourse?
  • Which evidence is required before a capability or change can ship?
  • How are exceptions, expiry, audits, and policy updates managed?

Implementation lifecycle

Build the evidence in this order

  1. 01

    Classify

    Tier systems by data sensitivity, autonomy, reach, reversibility, and consequence.

  2. 02

    Control

    Assign owners, evidence gates, access rules, review cadence, and exception paths.

  3. 03

    Audit

    Review changes, incidents, stale permissions, vendors, and unresolved exceptions.

Artifacts to maintain

  • ownership matrix
  • policy set
  • change record
  • exception register

Continue through AgentAtlas

Evidence ledger

Primary documentation behind this guide

AGENTS.md

AGENTS.md specification

Versioned repository instructions that make build, test, style, and contribution requirements available to agents.

GitHub

GitHub Spec Kit

Governed specification-driven workflows, quality checks, organizational principles, and traceability across delivery artifacts.

OpenAI

Codex security

Operational authority boundaries enforced through sandboxing, permissions, approvals, and network controls.

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