Governed Implementation

Deliver $ARGUMENTS under the repository's governance model. Use quick for trivial non-behavioral changes and spec when no code is needed.

Discovery

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

Read the matching Work Item and relevant RFCs and ADRs with their show commands. Use govctl <resource> --help for current syntax.

Hard Stops

• Stop when the request conflicts with a normative RFC or the behavior is unspecified. Do not implement against a draft RFC.
• Ask the user before any lifecycle or destructive artifact operation (accept, reject, finalize, advance, bump, deprecate, supersede, delete) unless the request already authorizes it.
• Do not edit gov/ files directly; use govctl commands. Clause operations use the root govctl clause namespace.
• Substantive implementation needs a matching active Work Item. Do not create Work Items for mechanical substeps.

Choose The Path

One Work Item covers one durable outcome. Reuse a matching active item, activate a queued one, or create one with wi-writer, choosing the narrowest guards that cover the changed risk. Use a loop for non-trivial execution that needs round evidence; let govctl generate its ID and reuse an open matching loop.

RFCs own obligations, ADRs own design rationale, and Work Items own execution scope. Work Item description states scope and reason; notes hold only facts or retry constraints still useful after closure. Progress, validation output, and temporary blockers go in loop state or the final response. A Conformance Case maps a scenario to RFC Clauses and Guards but is never authority for behavior; use govctl conformance trace to navigate.

RFC Lifecycle

Read the RFC's phase and the rules in [[RFC-0000:C-PHASE-LIFECYCLE]] and [[RFC-0002:C-LIFECYCLE-VERBS]] before mutating it:

• Do not implement against draft or deprecated content.
• Content edits after impl need an authorized version bump before further phase progression.
• Stop before mutating an artifact whose lifecycle state or recovery path you cannot establish, including a post-spec RFC without a sealed baseline.
• Clause since is lifecycle-owned; use Clause lifecycle commands.

Implement And Verify

Keep code within the Work Item and its governing artifacts. When work reveals a specification defect, repair the specification through its lifecycle instead of silently deviating.

RFCs and ADRs bind only what they state; choices they leave open belong to implementation. When coding shows a stated low-level detail is wrong, raise it for repair instead of building around it. When a significant design choice emerges during coding, record its ADR once implementation has produced the evidence.

With source scanning enabled, set its domain in source_scan.include. .gitignore provides baseline exclusions; governance-specific exclusions and re-inclusions go in .govignore. A custom source_scan.pattern uses capture group 1 as the artifact ID.

Run narrow checks while developing. Do not rerun guards by hand right before govctl work move <WI-ID> done, which runs them. Use compliance-checker when RFC-governed behavior changes materially. After a failure, change the approach; do not repeat the same command without new evidence.

Done When

• the code matches governing RFCs and accepted ADRs;
• govctl check, focused tests, and rendered projections are current;
• no critical review finding remains;
• acceptance criteria reflect the delivered outcome and the Work Item moves to done with its guards passing; and
• the final response reports the result, validation, and residual risk.

Use commit for VCS operations.