Godmode Governance

Outcome

Turn a risky requested operation into an explicit, reviewable contract. This skill classifies and previews the operation; it does not grant the host permission or claim to intercept every tool.

Workflow

1. Inspect the current project identity, branch or worktree, dirty state, and the exact target.
2. Separate observation from mutation. Read-only inspection needs no capability.

3. Classify the proposed action with:

   <plugin-root>/bin/godmode --project <path> guard --operation "<exact operation>"

4. For a protected result, run godmode guard --operation "<exact command>" and present its brief (Context / Options / Resolution / Accepted cost) verbatim.
5. If authorization is required, configure the local authorization secret once and issue a short-lived, one-use capability for the exact action. Never store or pass the secret through Godmode records.
6. Execute only when the user has authorized the mutation and the host provides an appropriate execution boundary. Keep execution separate from classification.
7. Consume the matching capability immediately before the protected operation, then verify the result and record evidence.

Read godmode-protection-matrix.md when deciding whether an operation is protected or when writing the preview.

Fail-closed rules

• Treat an unknown mutation as protected.
• Preserve unrelated user changes and existing worktrees.
• Rewrite history, remove data, publish, install, release, or change a database only from an explicit instruction, never an inferred intention.
• Reject a capability whose action, project, expiry, nonce, or signature does not match.
• Represent a preview as a preview and a guard result as advisory - neither is approval or automatic enforcement.
• Require a rollback or recovery statement for schema, history, release, and destructive filesystem changes.

Gate routing

• environment --target X classifies blast radius before any mutation; unknown fails closed as production and repository text cannot re-label it.
• egress --staged scans staged and untracked content for secret shapes before a commit.
• db --propose walks the schema ladder: existing column, existing table, and only then a reviewed new table.
• planmode specify|start|approve|check|arbitrate|bind gates mutation behind a spec-backed approved plan; rewind --to SEQ previews a rollback to a verified checkpoint.
• ceilings --spent ... stops a run that exceeded its declared budget; removal record|why keeps deletions explicable.
• godmode ownership --check [--diff-only] shows which gate rule owns each path or command, from the classifier's own tables, and fails closed when the checked-in decision table no longer matches the classifier it was generated from - run it before a commit that touches gate-owning paths.

Absorption verdicts

An upstream item (a dependency bump, a vendor release note, a competitor's fix) gets a decision record with subject absorb:<item> and BOTH verdicts in its data: import_verdict (adopt | extend | diverge | skip | exists | unread | n-a) and behaviour_verdict (confirmed-have | confirmed-dont | unverified). confirmed-* needs a file: citation proving it. "n-a - different surface" answers whether we can import it, never whether the same defect lives in our own implementation - that is what the behaviour verdict is for, and an item with only an import verdict is half-recorded. unread is an honest import verdict but is never a settled one: it names a surface read that never opened the source, so it still leaves the item half-recorded until a real verdict replaces it.

remember --kind decision --subject "absorb:<item>" --value "import_verdict: <verdict>. behaviour_verdict: <verdict>." validates both verdicts and refuses an adopt or extend verdict that cites no file:<path> source (README, docs, and release notes do not count as a source cite); a surface read may still say unread, skip, or diverge. Once a write passes, the parsed verdicts are persisted onto the record's data, so godmode_runtime.godmode_parity.upstream_verdicts(archive, items) reads a CLI-recorded decision the same way it reads one written by direct archive access (archive.append("decision", "absorb:<item>", {"import_verdict": ..., "behaviour_verdict": ...}, evidence=["file:..."])), and reports verdicted / half_verdicted / unread per item.

Completion

Report the classification, whether authorization was required, what actually ran, the recovery boundary, and fresh verification. If execution was outside the available host boundary, stop after the preview and say so plainly.

Verbs at the moment of demand

• Before declaring the work complete: the Stop gate blocks once when this session's asks, the plan's pending steps, or uncited criteria are still open on the record; close each with the command its line shows, or say which are deferred and why.
• Before a docs or release pass that must carry nothing personal: godmode privacy --repo names every email, home path, host-positioned IP address, secret shape and oversized tracked file by path and line, value masked.
• Before anything leaves the machine: godmode precheck --preflight (suite, scans, census, reach on a disposable worktree); godmode egress --staged says exactly what a push would send; godmode privacy and godmode untrusted scan for what must not leave; godmode netgate audits what dialled out.
• Before any push: godmode precheck --preflight --suite-shards 4 validates HEAD in a disposable worktree - the designated suite, the workflow's own gate steps read from .github/workflows/godmode-verify.yml, the banned-term scan - and records a preflight attestation at that commit. godmode authorize stage refuses to stage a push or a release without a green one at HEAD; --without-preflight "<reason>" is recorded, never silent.
• Cutting a release: godmode changelog merge --set-version X, godmode release-notes build X derives the note from that section and godmode release-notes check X holds it to the shape (present, every entry covered, no empty section, no process narration, a Verifying section), godmode version --reconcile, godmode bindings --write, godmode release compares two releases, godmode checksums and godmode sbom record what shipped, godmode license classifies what was read.
• After a source edit: godmode retest lists every test that pins a changed file (names its path, module, or stem) as one command per runner; godmode retest --run executes it and attests the exit code, so the done bar can cite retest instead of a hand-picked test.
• Before closing a session on a project that declares debt counters (.godmode-ratchets.json, name to command): godmode ratchet run records each value and names every counter that rose; integrity carries the same finding.
• Held-back checks: godmode oracle hold --command "<check>" (operator password) keeps a check under the git metadata directory where the agent never chose it; godmode oracle list and godmode oracle run read and run them, and claim --verify runs them after the cited checks - a red one caps the grade at observed.
• A protected operation: godmode authorize stage --operation "<exact command>" after the operator's password, godmode stage inspects what is staged, godmode capabilities and godmode approvals list what stands, godmode ceilings sets spend bounds, godmode protect pins a file, godmode fence and godmode scope bound what an edit may touch, godmode boundaries shows the host's enforcement table.
• A rule to keep or a decision to weigh: godmode register pins an evaluator, godmode precedent records how a prior case was decided, godmode recurring schedules a standing check, godmode sop records a procedure, godmode arbitrate settles two conflicting records, godmode governance reports the posture.
• Undoing or removing: godmode rollback and godmode rewind restore a recorded state, godmode removal records a deliberate deletion, godmode expunge --sequence N --reason retracts one record, godmode branches lists what diverged.
• Configuration and environment: godmode config check, godmode operator --policy (which layer decided each gate), godmode environment, godmode locale check, godmode extensions, godmode paired-artifact (files that must stay in sync), godmode parity and godmode upstream against the reference repository (upstream --path <tree> --skills <keyword> lists its skill docs that touch a keyword, the parity read before a verdict), godmode freshness for research that aged.
• Measuring the project: godmode metrics, godmode metric-contract, godmode trends, godmode minimality, godmode assurance, godmode trust, godmode selftest.