meetLab/ Docs/ DOC · 02 — governance overview

Governance overview.

The governance model in one document. Where execution permission comes from, what verifies it, how the execution taxonomy splits Dev from Gate, and which artifacts are canonical. This is an orientation document — non-authoritative, and explicitly does not grant execution permission.

StatusStable
DocDOC · 02 / 12
Source00_GOVERNANCE_
OVERVIEW.md
Document ID00_governance_overview_v4.1.0
RoleInterpretive · Orientation
I.

Permission sources

Execution permission is sourced from four artifacts, each of which must be present and coherent for a governed action to proceed.

Memory Seal
Hash-bound pointer covering every file or bundle the execution is allowed to mutate. Defines the artifact root.
Index Manifest
Authoritative inventory of governed artifacts and their integrity hashes. Provides the namespace for closure properties.
ACK Envelope
Persisted, hash-addressed agreement artifact that closes negotiation. Authority begins only when the envelope is sealed in runtime/airlock/envelopes/.
Session State Pointer
Active session identifier plus arbiter, emitter, and HALT state. Binds the four artifacts into a single admissible context.
II.

Verification mechanisms

Three phases verify, freeze, and consume that authority — in that order, with no skipping or reordering.

Phase 6 · ACA-v1

Evaluates the authority chain. Confirms envelope/session pointer coherence, manifest integrity, scope conformance, and quarantine constraints. Outcome is APPROVED or DENIED/HALT; nothing in between.

Phase 6.5 · Airlock / Heartbeat

Proves enforcement and frozen state. Locks non-target governance surfaces to read-only, emits heartbeat evidence, and atomically loads the admitted inputs for handoff. No partial continuation is permitted on failure.

Phase 7 · Execution

Consumes the frozen context and does not originate authority. The runtime is a blind worker surface; it cannot re-verify governance law or infer permission from prose or diagnostics.

III.

HALT semantics reference

For canonical HALT semantics — the codes, namespace, and routing — refer to:

  • docs/runtime/07_execution/halt_codes.md
  • docs/01_governance/artifact_roles.md

HALT is terminal and non-optional. A surface that suppresses or downgrades HALT is no longer a governed surface.

IV.

Execution taxonomy

two paths · not interchangeable
Dev-Exec is local or non-governed execution. It is non-compliant as governance evidence and cannot be cited in audit. Gate-Exec is the governed path — it requires admission, heartbeat, and frozen context. Confusing the two produces invalid evidence and is the most common audit failure mode.
V.

Canonical references

The authoritative artifacts that this overview interprets but does not replace.

  • docs/01_governance/artifact_roles.md
  • docs/01_governance/authority_lattice.md
  • docs/01_governance/version_manifest.md
  • docs/00_ARCHITECTURE_PHASE_BOUNDARIES.md
  • docs/runtime/04_negotiation/00_NTA_USAGE.md
  • docs/runtime/06_admission/
authority chain memory seal + index manifest + ACK envelope + session pointer → APPROVED | HALT
doc · 02 · build 2026-04-25 event → enforce(event) → invariant → PASS | HALT meetLab · 2026