gov

name	gov
description	Execute governed implementation with work-item traceability, RFC/ADR authority, risk-scoped verification, and closure
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep, TodoWrite
argument-hint	<what-to-do>

Governed Implementation

Deliver $ARGUMENTS under the repository's governance model. Use this skill for substantive implementation; use quick for trivial non-behavioral changes and spec when no implementation is required.

Operational Baseline

Discovery

Establish current state before choosing a workflow:

govctl status
govctl work list active
govctl work list queue
govctl loop list open
govctl search <topic>

Read a matching Work Item with govctl work show <WI-ID> and inspect relevant RFCs or ADRs through their show commands. Use govctl <resource> --help for current syntax and diagnostics for recovery. In the govctl repository itself, invoke the development binary as cargo run --quiet --.

Hard Stops

• RFCs are authoritative. Stop when the requested behavior conflicts with a normative RFC or is materially unspecified.
• Do not implement behavior that depends on a draft RFC.
• Obtain user authorization before lifecycle-owned or destructive artifact operations, including acceptance/rejection, phase or version changes, deprecation, supersession, and deletion, unless the request already grants it.
• Do not edit files under gov/ directly; use canonical govctl resource commands. Clause operations use the root govctl clause namespace.
• Substantive implementation needs a matching active Work Item. Do not create separate Work Items for mechanical substeps.
• Stop before mutation when authoritative lifecycle state or the required recovery path cannot be established.

Decision Policy

Choose The Smallest Governance Path

Situation	Action
Existing normative RFC fully specifies the change	Implement against it
Behavior is new, ambiguous, deprecated, or incompatible	Establish the obligation in an RFC; use an ADR only for supporting design rationale
Change is trivial and non-behavioral	Hand off to quick
Work is governance-only	Hand off to spec

Use one Work Item for one durable outcome. Reuse a matching active item, activate a queued item, or create one only when the result deserves durable tracking. Use wi-writer for field quality and choose the narrowest guards that cover the changed risk. Project defaults are for checks required by every Work Item.

Use a loop when non-trivial execution needs local round evidence. Let govctl generate the loop ID, reuse an open matching loop, and keep transient progress in loop state rather than Work Item notes.

Preserve Artifact Authority

• RFC: obligations and externally relevant invariants.
• ADR: design choice, rationale, and consequences.
• Work Item: task scope, acceptance criteria, dependencies, and durable execution facts.
• Conformance Case: a derived, non-normative mapping from a project scenario to versioned RFC Clauses and reusable Guards.

Work Item description states scope and reason. notes hold only facts or retry constraints that remain useful after closure. Progress, validation output, plans, and temporary blockers belong in loop evidence or the final response. Use govctl conformance trace for requirement-to-scenario navigation. Never treat a Case as authority for behavior that is absent from its RFC requirements.

Respect RFC Lifecycle Boundaries

Inspect the current RFC with show and read its governing lifecycle clauses before mutation. Do not implement against draft or deprecated content, progress an amended sealed version without its authorized bump, or mutate a post-spec RFC whose sealed baseline cannot be established. Clause since is lifecycle-owned; use canonical Clause lifecycle commands rather than editing history.

Implement And Verify

Keep implementation scoped to the Work Item and governing artifacts. When work reveals a specification defect, repair the specification through the authorized lifecycle rather than silently deviating.

When source reference scanning is enabled, express its positive domain in source_scan.include. Project .gitignore files provide baseline exclusions; put governance-specific exclusions and re-inclusions in .govignore. A custom source_scan.pattern uses capture group 1 as the artifact ID for every match.

Run the narrowest useful checks while developing. Before closing the Work Item, do not manually repeat guards that govctl work move <WI-ID> done is about to run. Standalone verification is for diagnosis or evidence while the item remains active. Use the compliance-checker agent, not an artifact reviewer, when RFC-governed implementation behavior changes materially.

Recover from diagnostics by changing the failing assumption or approach. Do not repeat the same failed command without new evidence.

Completion Evidence

The task is complete when:

• implementation matches the governing RFCs and accepted ADRs;
• govctl check passes for the governed repository;
• relevant focused tests and generated projections are current;
• semantic review has no unresolved critical finding;
• Work Item acceptance criteria reflect the delivered outcome;
• moving the Work Item to done passes its effective guards; and
• the final response reports the result, validation, and any residual risk.

Use the commit skill for raw VCS operations.