Governance
Standards governance documents define how projects MAY diverge from MUST rules and how exceptions are tracked. These are not agent contract files; load them when requesting or reviewing a standards exception.
Documents
| Document | Purpose |
|---|---|
| exceptions.md | Process for waiving a MUST rule, project tier defaults, deprecation policy |
| ../decisions/README.md | Org-wide architecture decisions for the standards repository |
| ../conventions/shared/adr-template.md | Template for new decision records |
Relationship to docs/decisions/
| Location | Scope |
|---|---|
docs/decisions/ (this repo) | Org-wide stack and pattern choices that affect all consumer projects |
docs/decisions/ (consumer project) | Project-specific ADRs and standards exceptions |
docs/governance/ | Meta-process for exceptions and tier defaults, not technology choices |
Consumer projects store active standards exceptions under docs/decisions/exceptions/ or in the project ADR index with status Active / Expired (see exceptions.md).
When agents load governance docs
- Routine coding: do not load.
- Security waiver, coverage threshold exception, or conflicting MUST rules: load
exceptions.mdand follow the exception process. - New org-wide dependency or pattern reversal in the standards repo: write a decision in
docs/decisions/using the ADR template.