Governed Agent SDLC is a cross-platform toolkit for AI coding agents. It separates a tool-neutral workflow kernel from project profiles and vendor adapters, so the same approval, security, artifact, review, and QA rules can be applied to different technology stacks.

The project is intentionally human-in-the-loop. It helps agents work predictably; it does not grant an AI permission to approve, merge, release, or retrieve credentials.

Alpha status: the core workflow, Claude Code and Codex adapters, deterministic safety hooks, cross-platform validation, and PyPI Trusted Publishing are available. Interfaces may still evolve before 1.0.

What is included

• Six tool-neutral roles: architect, planner, developer, reviewer, QA, and publisher.
• A structured artifact lifecycle with explicit approval evidence and supersession.
• A TOML project manifest for repository layout, profiles, commands, and protected areas.
• A dependency-free Python CLI: init, generate, update-hooks, validate, doctor, and artifact commands.
• Claude Code agent generation and safety hooks.
• Native Codex project configuration and governed role generation.
• Stack profiles for generic repositories, Python, .NET, and Nuxt.
• Cross-platform tests and reusable GitHub Actions.

Quick start

Requires Python 3.11 or newer. Install the published package:

python -m pip install governed-agent-sdlc
agentkit --version
agentkit doctor

Upgrade an existing installation to this release:

python -m pip install --upgrade governed-agent-sdlc==0.6.0
agentkit --version
agentkit update-hooks
agentkit generate claude-code --force
agentkit doctor

Version 0.6.0 adds templates for plans, reviews, and QA records, so agentkit artifact new starts every kind from the sections in core/templates/. A project that has no copy of a template gets the packaged one; existing artifacts are not touched. Upgrading the Python package does not overwrite project configuration, and that includes the guards under hooks/, so run update-hooks to get the guards this version ships, and only then regenerate the adapter (generate codex --force for Codex): regenerated settings can name a guard an older project does not have, and a missing guard file fails every tool call it guards closed. See release notes for the full changes.

For local development:

python -m pip install -e .
agentkit doctor
agentkit validate
python -m unittest discover -s tests -v

Initialize another project:

agentkit init ../my-project --name my-project --adapter claude-code
cd ../my-project
agentkit doctor

Use --format json with validate, doctor, generation, migration, and artifact inspection commands for automation. Preview additive initialization or adapter generation with --dry-run.

Initialization is additive: existing AGENTS.md, manifest, core policy, hook, and adapter files are not overwritten. A fresh project receives the generic stack profiles and a minimal AGENTS.md so generated roles always have the instructions they reference.

Create and move a governed artifact:

agentkit artifact new spec add-search
agentkit artifact transition docs/agent/specs/<file>.md awaiting_approval
agentkit artifact transition docs/agent/specs/<file>.md approved \
  --approved-by "github:maintainer" \
  --evidence "https://github.com/org/repo/issues/123#issuecomment-..."

An agent must never supply approval metadata for itself. The human supplies the actor and durable evidence, and CI validates that the fields exist.

Project manifest

agentkit.toml or .agent/project.toml is the source of truth:

version = 1
protected_areas = ["authentication", "database-schema", "billing"]

[project]
name = "commerce"
topology = "monorepo"

[[repositories]]
id = "backend"
path = "services/api"
profiles = ["dotnet"]

[[repositories]]
id = "frontend"
path = "apps/web"
profiles = ["nuxt"]

[workflow]
require_spec = true
require_plan = true
require_review = true
require_qa = true

Repository paths are resolved from the manifest and must remain inside the project root. No machine or user-specific absolute path belongs in committed configuration.

Validation is strict and dependency-free. It rejects unsupported manifest versions and topology, missing workflow flags, invalid field types, duplicate repository identities or paths, escaping repository paths, and profile capabilities that are not provided by profiles/, adapters/, or the repository's GitHub integration.

Artifact validation also checks kind-specific parent gates, approval history for approved/active/ completed/superseded states, repository and protected-area references, timestamps, supersession, and metadata types. Artifact creation refuses filename collisions. Transitions made through the CLI are restricted to Markdown files below the active project's docs/agent/ directory.

Design boundaries

• core/ is vendor-neutral and is the only source of workflow meaning.
• profiles/ contain stack-specific commands and exclusions.
• adapters/ and generated tool files translate the core; they do not redefine it.
• hooks/ enforce deterministic safety rules. Prompts explain behavior but are not security controls.
• Hook input is fail-closed: malformed input is denied, as are credential paths/environment dumps, force pushes, and direct protected-branch refspecs.
• Hooks also hold the workflow: a role is spawned only from artifacts that passed their gate, and a role that does not own a task file may change only its completion evidence.
• docs/agent/ holds project artifacts, not hidden agent memory.

See Architecture, Workflow, and Adopting Governed Agent SDLC.

Maturity

The project is an alpha. Claude Code and Codex consume the same core contracts rather than introducing parallel policy files.

See CHANGELOG.md for release history and upgrade notes.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.