Governances
Governances are versioned, agent-readable rule sets that encode what to do — imperative rules, conventions, and standards that agents load on demand to complete a workflow correctly.
They answer the question the agent has right now: “what are the rules for this?” ADRs answer a different question: “why did we decide this?” Agents read governances. Humans read ADRs.
Structure
Section titled “Structure”A governance is a dense, self-contained document:
- Imperative rules — must, should, do not; no tutorials or background
- No rationale sections — no
## Whyor## Background; that belongs in ADRs - Self-contained — agent completes the workflow from the governance alone
- References at end — only links to other governances or external docs
Loading governances
Section titled “Loading governances”Agents load governances via CLI, not by reading files directly:
npx cyberplace@<version> governance show skill-designnpx cyberplace@<version> governance show skill-design --format agentPinning the version ensures agents always get rules that match the installed tooling.
Available governances
Section titled “Available governances”| Name | Purpose |
|---|---|
| skill-design | Rules for authoring SKILL.md files |
| skill-repo-structure | Rules for organizing a skill library repository |
| agent-tool-output | Output rules for scripts, hooks, and CLIs that agents invoke |
| cli-resolution | Strategy for invoking a Node CLI that may be global, repo-local, or absent |
| universal-plugin | Format spec for plugins that work across multiple agent harnesses |
Governance vs Discipline
Section titled “Governance vs Discipline”Both governance and discipline are verified the same way: give the agent a scenario, observe what it does, check the outcome. The distinction is not how you test compliance — it is:
| Governance | Discipline | |
|---|---|---|
| When active | On demand, per workflow | Always-on, any agent or sub |
| Content shape | Normative rules for a specific domain | Cross-cutting behavioral habits |
| Static analysis | Yes — tools like audit-skill check artifacts against governance rules | No — only verifiable by observing behavior |
Tagline: Governance defines what is correct. Discipline defines what is habitual.
Related
Section titled “Related”- ADRs — why the rules are what they are
- Discipline — always-on behavioral habits
- Governances overview — CLI usage and authoring rules
- Agent Configuration — where always-on rules live