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GovZero Charter v6

Status: Active Last reviewed: 2026-01-08 Authority: Canon (sole authority for gate definitions)

This document is the sole authority for GovZero gate definitions and semantics. All other documents MUST reference gates by number only and defer here for meaning.

Authority Boundary

Role Authority
Human Attests to ADR closeout; provides explicit attestation
Agent Assists with implementation, testing, documentation; presents artifacts
Audit Runs post-attestation to reconcile artifacts; does not grant authority

Human attestation is the closeout gate. Agents cannot attest on behalf of humans. Audit is a reconciliation mechanism, not an authority mechanism.

Gate Definitions

Gate 1: ADR (Intent)

Purpose: Record intent and tradeoffs before implementation.

Artifact: ADR document with problem statement, decision, and consequences.

Applies to: All work (Lite and Heavy lanes).

Gate 2: TDD (Tests)

Purpose: Verify implementation correctness through automated tests.

Artifact: Passing unit tests with coverage floor (≥40%).

Applies to: All work (Lite and Heavy lanes).

Gate 3: Docs (Documentation)

Purpose: Ensure documentation accurately describes code behavior.

Artifact: Clean markdown lint, mkdocs build passes, links/anchors valid.

Applies to: Heavy lane only.

Gate 4: BDD (Behavior)

Purpose: Verify external contract behavior through acceptance tests.

Artifact: Passing Behave scenarios for CLI/API/schema contracts.

Applies to: Heavy lane only.

Gate 5: Human Attestation

Purpose: Human directly observes artifacts and attests to ADR completion.

Artifact: Explicit human attestation recorded with timestamp.

Applies to: Heavy lane only (required for ADR closeout).

Authority: Human attestation is the sole authority for ADR closeout. Agents present artifacts; humans observe and attest. Audit runs post-attestation.

Lane Doctrine

Lane Gates Trigger
Lite 1, 2 Internal-only implementation, documentation, process, or template changes that do not change an external runtime contract
Heavy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Changes to commands, APIs, schemas, or other runtime contracts used by humans or external systems

Default lane is Lite. Escalate to Heavy only when a command, API, schema, or runtime contract changes. Documentation-only, process-only, and template-only changes remain Lite unless they also change one of those external surfaces.

Closeout Attestation Terms

Human attestation MUST use one of these exact forms:

Term Meaning
Completed ADR work finished; all claims verified
Completed — Partial: [reason] Subset accepted; remainder deferred with rationale
Dropped — [reason] ADR rejected; clear rationale provided

These terms are canonical. Other terms (accept, approve, sign off) are not valid for closeout.

References