Governance Domain

System management — the “Department of Justice” for Agonda · Platform domain · Owner: Alex

01 Overview
Type
Platform
Owner
Alex
Status
Active
Purpose
Owns the processes, standards, and tools for how domains operate
Starts
Domain lifecycle management, compliance standards, system health
Ends
Domain-specific content and strategy (owned by each domain)
Critical distinction: Governance maintains federal artifacts (.claude/rules/, taxonomy/, root CLAUDE.md, CODEOWNERS) but does not own them. Federal artifacts go through PR review like everything else. Governance also maintains site/ — generated HTML views deployed to Cloudflare Pages.
02 The Agonda Constitution

6 articles, 17 principles governing the entire system. The federal laws. Ratified Feb 7, 2026. Version 3.0.0.

Article I

Domain Sovereignty

  • 1.1 Domain Ownership — single accountability, full lifecycle
  • 1.2 Capability Ownership — decentralised workbenches
  • 1.3 Domain Topology — stream, platform, enabling, complicated
Article II

Federal Governance

  • 2.1 Federated Governance — federal vs domain rules
  • 2.2 Governance Spectrum — convention to structural
  • 2.3 Interface Agnosticism — CLAUDE.md universal contract
Article III

Knowledge Flow

  • 3.1 Knowledge Pipeline — intake to crystallisation
  • 3.2 Provenance — cite, don't copy
  • 3.3 Freshness — knowledge has a shelf life
  • 3.4 Feedback Loops — operations refine knowledge
Article IV

Interoperability

  • 4.1 Composability — multi-domain workflows
  • 4.2 Cross-Domain Consumption — read anything, only owner writes
  • 4.3 Data as a Product — discoverable, trustworthy, governed
Article V

Agent Navigation

  • 5.1 Progressive Disclosure — 3 hops to any knowledge
  • 5.2 Self-Describing Interfaces — CLAUDE.md tells you everything
  • 5.3 Semantic Routing — navigate by understanding
Article VI

Operational Sovereignty

  • 6.1 Declared Systems — what isn't declared is ungoverned
  • 6.2 Data Contracts — formal interfaces for operational data
  • 6.3 Tool Integration — MCPs, skills, agents, hooks
03 System Model — The Federal Analogy

Agonda and the US federal system solve the same problem: autonomy without chaos.

Founding Principles

Enabling Domain

The Declaration of Independence. "Why do we exist?" Sets direction, produces no features. All domains derive purpose from here.

Alavida Vision

Federal Government

Governance (Platform)

The Department of Justice + Congress. Owns the constitution, federal law, and compliance processes. Serves all, owns no territory.

This domain

Federal Agencies

Platform Domains

Like the FCC or EPA. Set standards all states follow within a specific scope. Voice guidelines, tone, positioning.

Brand Identity

The States

Stream-Aligned Domains

Sovereign within borders. Own governor, constitution (CLAUDE.md), state laws. Deliver value directly to citizens.

Sales Content Prospect Discovery

Pentagon / NASA

Complicated-Subsystem Domains

Product

Deep specialist knowledge behind simplified interfaces. Other domains don't need to understand internals.

04 Knowledge Pipeline

Information flows from raw input through stages of refinement. Synthesis, not file moves.

Intake
Slack, meetings
Raw, unstructured.
Zero governance.
→
Active Work
workspace/
Structured, in progress.
Light governance.
→
Crystallisation
domains/
Synthesised, validated.
Full governance.
→
Archive
workspace/archive/
Superseded. Preserved
for provenance.
Key principle: Domain knowledge is a transformation of workspace data, not a copy. Multiple sources feed one artifact. The workspace is cited, not consumed. Crystallisation is always human-initiated.
05 Governance Spectrum

Enforcement ranges from convention to structural. Rules earn their level through maturity.

Softest
Convention
CLAUDE.md
Agent reasons
→
Enabling
Capability
Skills, commands
User invokes
→
Active
Real-time
Claude Code hooks
Every tool call
→
After-fact
Async
GitHub Actions
Every PR
→
Hardest
Structural
Branch protection
CODEOWNERS
LevelMechanismAnalogyExample
ConventionCLAUDE.mdSocial norms, customs"Use ISO-8601 timestamps"
CapabilitySkills, commandsGovernment services/governance:health-check
Real-timeClaude Code hooksPolice at point of actionValidate frontmatter on write
AsyncGitHub ActionsRegulatory auditsDomain structure validator on PR
StructuralCODEOWNERS, branch protectionConstitutional lawRequire domain owner approval
06 Knowledge Inventory
KnowledgeFileConfidenceWhen to Use
Constitution constitution.md High Checking compliance with system principles, understanding domain sovereignty
Domain Template domain-template.md High Scaffolding a new domain, validating CLAUDE.md structure
System Model system-model.md High Explaining Agonda concepts, reasoning about cross-domain relations
KPIs kpis.md High Running health checks, calculating compliance scores
System Status system-status.md High Assessing current system health, prioritizing maintenance
Consumer Skill Template consumer-skill-template.md High Publishing a quantum to the registry, defining data contracts
Vault Visualization vault-visualization.md High Configuring Obsidian graph, tagging governed files
GitHub Actions github-actions.md High Understanding PR automation, Slack comms routing
07 Federal Rules

System-wide rules in .claude/rules/ — auto-loaded into every agent context. Governance maintains, nobody owns.

Quantum Contract

Required endpoints (/run, /health, /data), response formats, two-phase lifecycle (deploy + register), observability by type. Consumer skill publication mandatory.

Data Product Agentic Connector
Event Naming

Pattern: {domain}/{entity}.{action}. Standard envelope with trace_id, span_id, source, timestamp, data. Additive-only schema evolution.

Self-Sufficient Payloads
Polysemes

Cross-domain entities (Company, Person). Identity quantum = resolution authority. Nullable UUID columns (polyseme_company_id). Forward-only migration.

POST /run/resolve-company POST /run/resolve-person
Traceability

trace_id per flow + span_id per quantum. Structured JSON logs, LLM tracing for agentic quantums, collaborator logging for external APIs.

Structured Logs LLM Traces Collaborators
08 Processes
ProcessFileStagesWhen to Use
Domain Admission domain-admission.md Proposal → Admission → Active Proposing or scaffolding a new domain
Health Check health-check.md 6 checks → KPI scores → report Auditing system compliance and freshness
Compliance Review compliance-review.md 5-category checklist → outcome Validating a domain against federal rules
Branch Strategy branch-strategy.md 6 prefixes → comms routing Creating branches, understanding PR workflow
Synthesis Pipeline synthesis-pipeline.md Reduce → Reflect → Propagate → Verify → Materialize Promoting workspace material into domain knowledge
09 Synthesis Pipeline

How workspace material becomes governed domain knowledge. Four phases, one artifact (SYNTHESIS.md), human review between each phase.

graph TD
  WS["workspace/ material"] --> R["1. Reduce"]
  R -->|"extract + classify"| SYN["SYNTHESIS.md"]
  SYN --> REV1{{"align"}}
  REV1 --> RF["2. Reflect"]
  RF -->|"discover connections"| SYN2["SYNTHESIS.md"]
  SYN2 --> REV2{{"align"}}
  REV2 --> PR["2.5 Propagate"]
  PR -->|"scan stale refs"| SYN3["SYNTHESIS.md"]
  SYN3 --> REV3{{"align"}}
  REV3 --> VF["3. Verify"]
  VF -->|"cold-read + schema"| SYN4["SYNTHESIS.md"]
  SYN4 --> REV4{{"align"}}
  REV4 --> GO["go ahead"]
  GO --> PM["Plan Mode"]
  PM -->|"approve plan"| FC["Fresh-Context Agent"]
  FC --> BR["Create branches"]
  FC --> WR["Write files"]
  FC --> OPR["Open PRs"]
  FC --> AR["Archive sources"]

  classDef phase fill:#2d356122,stroke:#2d3561,stroke-width:2px
  classDef artifact fill:#a0782822,stroke:#a07828,stroke-width:2px
  classDef review fill:#bc6c2522,stroke:#bc6c25,stroke-width:1px
  classDef exec fill:#2d6a4f22,stroke:#2d6a4f,stroke-width:2px
  classDef input fill:#9b222622,stroke:#9b2226,stroke-width:1px

  class R,RF,PR,VF phase
  class SYN,SYN2,SYN3,SYN4 artifact
  class REV1,REV2,REV3,REV4 review
  class PM,FC,BR,WR,OPR,AR exec
  class WS,GO input
Quality Gates
  • Reduce: skip rate < 10% for domain-relevant sources
  • Reflect: articulation test — every connection needs a "because"
  • Propagate: every item has file path + what's stale + proposed update
  • Verify: RECITE score ≥ 3, all schema valid, links resolve
Key Rules
  • All output goes to SYNTHESIS.md until materialization
  • One PR per domain for cross-domain changes
  • Review is conversational, phases are sequential
  • Plan mode for materialization (fresh-context agent)
  • Source archival only after materialization
10 KPIs & System Health

Latest report: 2026-02-10 · 2 domains audited · All passing

100%
Structural Completeness
14/14 sections · threshold ≥90%
100%
Knowledge Currency
11/11 files fresh · threshold ≥80%
100%
Referential Integrity
30/30 links · threshold ≥95%
Deferred KPIs (3)
Contract Health

Activates when data contracts exist between 2+ domains.

System Coverage

Activates when external systems declared across 4+ domains.

Routing Quality

Activates when testing infrastructure for agent navigation exists.

Health Check Details — Per-Domain Breakdown

governance — PASS

  • Structure: 7/7
  • Frontmatter: 4/4 valid
  • Links: 8/8 resolve
  • Freshness: 4/4 fresh
  • Orphans: 0 orphaned
  • Dependencies: No deps

platform — PASS

  • Structure: 7/7
  • Frontmatter: 7/7 valid
  • Links: 9/9 resolve
  • Freshness: 7/7 fresh
  • Orphans: 0 orphaned
  • Dependencies: 1 dep, no cycles
11 Branch Strategy & Comms Routing

Branch prefixes signal knowledge operation type and blast radius. The prefix determines review, comms routing, and Slack channel.

PrefixWhatBlast RadiusSlack ChannelReview
govern/ Federal legislation, constitutional amendments System-wide #governance-news System operator
synthesize/{domain}/ Workspace → domain knowledge Domain + consumers #domain-updates Domain owner
admit/{domain} New domain joins the system System-wide #governance-news System op + owner
capability/{domain}/ New skills, agents, hooks, MCPs Domain-scoped #governance-news Domain owner
ops/ Infrastructure and tooling Varies #system-health System operator
workspace/ Raw material — brainstorms, research, notes None #workspace-feed None required
CI/CD Automation — 2 GitHub Actions Workflows
PR Compliance

Trigger: pull_request (opened, sync, reopen)

domain-compliance job: 6 checks — structure, ownership, knowledge standards, cross-domain rules, navigation, branch convention. Uses Claude Code Action (Sonnet). Blocks merge on FAIL.

workspace-quality job: 4 checks — lifecycle dir, naming, heading, synthesis hint. Uses Haiku. Advisory only.

Domain Update Comms

Trigger: PR merged with semantic prefix

Content types by prefix:

  • workspace/ → Tweet (hook + substance)
  • ops/ → Templated status update
  • govern/ admit/ capability/ → Official article
  • synthesize/ → News report
12 Workbenches & Skills

Governance tools packaged as a Creator workbench. Skills invocable via /governance:<skill>.

SkillTypeDescription
/governance:synthesize Orchestrator Full pipeline — sequences reduce, reflect, propagate, verify, materialize, archive
/governance:reduce Pipeline Phase 1: Extract and classify insights from workspace material into SYNTHESIS.md
/governance:reflect Pipeline Phase 2: Discover connections between proposed and existing domain knowledge
/governance:propagate Pipeline Phase 2.5: Scan for stale vocabulary and references after synthesis changes
/governance:verify Pipeline Phase 3: Cold-read prediction, schema validation, health checks. Also standalone.
/governance:health-check Operational Scan domains for structural compliance, knowledge freshness, referential integrity
/governance:define-domain Operational Scaffold a new domain from template with required structure
Freshness policy: Domain template — 90 days. Process documents — 60 days. Governance patterns — 90 days. Last system-wide validation: 2026-02-19.