Tenet Governance

Guidance for managing architectural tenets - constraints that must be followed in all work on a codebase.

Overview

Tenets are architectural constraints that require human judgment to verify. They differ from linting rules:

Tenets	Linting Rules
Architectural boundaries	Code style
"Domain must not import infrastructure"	"Use 2-space indentation"
Require judgment to verify	Machine-checkable
Few (3-7 per project)	Many (hundreds)
Project-specific decisions	Industry conventions

Quick Reference

Tenet Format

### T<N>. <Name>

<Description: 2-4 sentences explaining constraint and rationale>

**Severity:** <critical | high | medium | low>

**Evidence:**
- `<file:line>` - <observation>

Severity Levels

Level	Meaning	Verification Behavior
critical	Breaks system invariants	Always fail
high	Causes significant tech debt	Fail by default
medium	Reduces code quality	Warn by default
low	Guideline, not requirement	Info only

Exception Syntax

Table (in AGENTS.md):

## Tenet Exceptions

| File | Tenet | Reason | Approved |
|------|-------|--------|----------|
| `src/legacy/adapter.go` | T1 | Legacy integration | 2024-01-15 |

Inline (in code):

// governor:ignore T1 - Legacy adapter, tracking in #123
import "infrastructure/db"

Two Operations

Validation (setup/manage): Is this tenet grounded in reality?

• Search codebase for evidence supporting the tenet
• Output: SUPPORTED, WEAK_EVIDENCE, NOT_SUPPORTED, CONTRADICTED

Verification (verify): Does this code follow the tenets?

• Analyze code against existing tenets
• Output: COMPLIANT or VIOLATED with confidence scores

Confidence Scoring

Score	Criteria	Example
90-100	Explicit violation	Forbidden import present
70-89	Likely violation	Pattern suggests violation
50-69	Possible violation	Ambiguous code
1-49	Uncertain	Probably false positive

Good Tenet Characteristics

1. Actionable: "X must/must not Y" format
2. Evidence-based: Grounded in actual codebase patterns
3. Architectural: About structure, not style
4. Persistent: Unlikely to change frequently
5. Verifiable: Can determine compliance with reasonable effort

Reference Documentation

For detailed specifications and examples:

• Tenet Format Specification: Complete format, parsing rules, AGENTS.md structure
• Verification Patterns: Language-specific detection patterns
• Examples: Good/bad tenets, example AGENTS.md, sample output