governance-sentinel

name	governance-sentinel
version	1.0.0
category	devops
description	Recurring governance introspection — scrape brain sync snapshots for codepath patterns, compile weekly insights, and store verdicts in dream.json for retrospection. Runs as a sentinel after mycortex-update-sync, before daily police logs.

Governance Sentinel v1.0.0

Scraping brain sync state, extracting codepath patterns, and producing governance insights for weekly retrospection. This is the sentinel that sits after mycortex-update-sync and before daily police logs in the pipeline.

When to Use

Load this skill when the task involves:

• "sentinel" related to brain sync, governance, or reflection
• Scraping brain snapshots for patterns
• Writing or updating dream.json
• Weekly retrospection or governance insight compilation
• Pipeline-position-aware sentinel work (between mycortex update and police logs)

Pipeline Position

mycortex-update-sync → GOVERNANCE-SENTINEL → daily police logs

The sentinel runs after the brain snapshot is refreshed (so it sees the latest state) and before the police logs (so its insights are available for the daily governance report).

What It Does

1. Scrape brain sync snapshots — read the latest mycortex sync output for codepath patterns (repeated file paths, recurring operation types, agent activity signatures).
2. Extract patterns — cluster the scraped activity into codepath families: which scripts, crons, or workflows recur most.
3. Compile weekly insights — aggregate the daily observations into weekly governance themes (drift sources, hot paths, risky patterns).
4. Store verdicts in dream.json — each run appends a verdict record (timestamp, pattern summary, confidence, suggested follow-up) for retrospection. dream.json is the sentinel's persistent memory.

dream.json Format

{
  "verdicts": [
    {
      "ts": "2026-08-01T03:00:00Z",
      "patterns": ["ops/scripts/cortex-update.sh x4", "cron agent-fixer-* x3"],
      "confidence": 0.8,
      "suggestion": "Review cortex-update lock purge interaction"
    }
  ]
}

Running the Sentinel

# Manual run
python3 ~/hermes-cortex/src/loop-governance/governance-sentinel.py

# Verify the verdict landed
python3 -c "import json; print(len(json.load(open('~/.hermes-cortex/state/dream.json'))['verdicts']))"

Related

• loop-governance — the cycle-scoring system it reflects on
• legacy-brain-maintenance — the sync step it follows
• soul-refinement — daily SOUL.md insights (companion)
• orch-weekly-auto-fix — weekly opportunity scan (consumer of insights)