Governance

Atlas governance turns owned rules into inspectable policy, focused enforcement, and evidence that can support review. A rule is durable when its authority, scope, owner, enforcement path, exception model, and failure result are explicit.

flowchart LR
    Doctrine[Owned rule and rationale] --> Policy[Machine-readable policy]
    Policy --> Enforce[Focused validator or workflow]
    Enforce --> Report[Structured finding and evidence]
    Report --> Decision[Review or release decision]
    Exception[Governed exception and expiry] --> Enforce
    Decision --> Feedback[Compatibility, docs, and rule maintenance]
    Feedback --> Doctrine

Governed Surfaces

Surface	Authority	Maintainer concern
repository rules	configs/sources/governance/governance/	ownership, naming, boundaries, and durable invariants
policy inputs	configs/sources/governance/policy/	loading, precedence, validation, and fail-closed behavior
documentation spine	navigation, metadata, redirects, and docs contracts	public discoverability and reader-facing truth
compatibility	API, CLI, configuration, artifact, and ownership policy	additive, deprecating, migrating, or breaking change
evidence	schemas, run identity, findings, status, and artifact binding	what a result establishes and what remains unproven
enforcement	control-plane commands and workflows	deterministic selection, capabilities, and failure routing

Route by Decision

• Rule Enforcement traces a rule from source to finding.
• Policy Loading defines policy discovery and precedence.
• Automation Contracts and Automation Architecture define command and implementation boundaries.
• Change and Compatibility classifies consumer impact.
• Evidence Contracts defines report identity and custody.
• Testing and Evidence matches validation cost and depth to the claim.
• Docs Spine Governance, Documentation Standards, and Redirects and Navigation govern public documentation integrity.

Governance Failure Modes

• A narrative rule with no enforcement path is guidance, not an automated gate.
• A validator with no owned policy can hard-code accidental behavior.
• A passing report without source and input identity cannot support review.
• A skipped or refused check is missing evidence, not conformance.
• An exception without scope, owner, compensating control, and expiry becomes an undocumented permanent rule change.
• A generated reference that drifts from its authority is a governance defect even when both files remain syntactically valid.

Governance should make disagreement visible. It must not hide missing coverage behind a broad status label or force unrelated surfaces through one generic validation path.