nornyx 1.4.0

A generalized agentic contract/control-plane language for governed AI software delivery.

Nornyx

A generalized agentic contract/control-plane language for governed AI software delivery.

pip install nornyx

Your AI-engineering rules live scattered across AGENTS.md, a skills folder, prompt/context packs, a harness script, an eval config, policy docs, evidence templates, and approval checklists — and they drift out of sync. Nornyx makes them one checked source of truth: write a single .nyx file, then generate and validate all those artifacts from it.

one .nyx contract  ──►  AGENTS.md · skills/ · harness.yaml · policy.yaml
                        evals.yaml · context.yaml · evidence_contract.md

Nornyx does not replace Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, CI/CD, or human review. It compiles, checks, and generates the control artifacts those execution surfaces follow.

Install

pip install nornyx          # from PyPI
# or pin from source:
pip install "nornyx @ git+https://github.com/mazinmarji/nornyx@v1.1.1"

Requires Python 3.10+. The only runtime dependency is PyYAML.

Quick start (5 minutes)

# 0. drop the bundled example contracts into ./examples/
nornyx examples

# 1. check a contract
nornyx check examples/governed_delivery_control_plane.nyx

# 2. generate the control artifacts from it
nornyx generate examples/governed_delivery_control_plane.nyx --out generated/cp

# 3. build a provenance-hashed context pack
nornyx context-build examples/governed_delivery_control_plane.nyx --repo . --out generated/context.json

# 4. inspect the schema
nornyx schema --version 1.0

(If you didn't install the console script, use python -m nornyx.cli ....)

nornyx generate writes AGENTS.md, skills/, harness.yaml, policy.yaml, evals.yaml, context.yaml, and evidence_contract.md into the output folder — regenerate any time the .nyx changes, and nornyx check keeps them honest.

Shell/editor completion

nornyx complete emits JSON completion items for .nyx documents. Nornyx does not install a shell hook by default; this command is the completion data source to wire into shell functions, editor adapters, or small helper scripts.

Top-level block suggestions:

nornyx complete --prefix con

Reference-aware suggestions:

nornyx complete examples/governed_delivery_control_plane.nyx --path agent.policy --prefix Safe

The command prints LSP-shaped objects with label, kind, detail, and insertText, so wrappers can parse the labels and present them as candidates.

A contract looks like this

nornyx: "0.1"
project:
  name: GovernedDelivery

contexts:
  - name: RepoContext
    include: ["src/**/*.py", "docs/**/*.md"]
    authority: ["docs/SECURITY.md"]
    taint:                       # trust boundaries are first-class
      repo: trusted_repo_file
      user_prompt: untrusted
      external_web: untrusted

policies:
  - name: SafeEditPolicy
    rules:
      - deny secrets_to_llm
      - require tests_if_code_changed
      - require evidence_if_harness_completed

agents:
  - name: Builder
    role: "Implement small scoped patches."
    skills: [PatchBuilder, TestRepair, EvidencePack]
    policy: SafeEditPolicy

harnesses:
  - name: DevHarness
    context: RepoContext
    flow:
      - agent: Builder
        action: implement
      - tool: tests
        action: run
      - evidence: DevEvidence
        action: pack
    gate:
      - require: tests.pass
      - require: human_approval_before_merge

Use it in your repo

Going from the demo to your own project is four steps:

# 1. scaffold a .nyx for your repo (pick a profile, default ai_coding)
nornyx init --name YourRepo --out nornyx.nyx

# 2. edit nornyx.nyx — your contexts, policies, agents, harness — then check it
nornyx check nornyx.nyx

# 3. generate the artifacts and put AGENTS.md where your agent reads it
nornyx generate nornyx.nyx --out .nornyx/
cp .nornyx/AGENTS.md AGENTS.md          # the file Claude Code / Cursor / Copilot read

# 4. commit nornyx.nyx (the source) and the artifacts you use

Keep them from drifting. Commit the generated directory and add a check that it still matches the contract — in CI or a pre-commit hook:

nornyx drift nornyx.nyx --out .nornyx   # nonzero exit if ANY artifact drifts

nornyx drift compares every generated artifact by hash (not just AGENTS.md), so a change to policy.yaml is caught too. Across many repos, declare your org policy once in a workspace manifest and verify each repo matches it:

nornyx workspace-check --manifest nornyx.workspace.yaml

Now the .nyx is the single source of truth: edit it, regenerate, and the check fails loudly if any artifact drifts. Full walkthrough: docs/USE_IN_YOUR_REPO.md.

Reference a shared policy instead of copying it

A policy can reference a canonical definition rather than copy its rules, so there is nothing to drift in the first place:

policies:
  - name: SafeDeliveryPolicy
    ref: ../governance/nornyx.workspace.yaml#SafeDeliveryPolicy   # single source

ref is <path>#<PolicyName>, resolved from a local .nyx contract or a workspace manifest. The canonical rules live in one place; edit them there and every referencing contract is updated. nornyx check and nornyx generate resolve the reference and inline the real rules into policy.yaml. See the bundled org_policies.nyx and governed_service.nyx examples.

Why Nornyx

• One source of truth for agent/skill/harness/policy/eval/evidence artifacts — no more drift.
• Context trust model: mark which context is trusted vs untrusted so untrusted input can't define policy, and deny secrets_to_llm at the contract level.
• Generators + a checker: turn .nyx into the files your tools read, and verify references and required fields.
• Generated-artifact drift gate: catch when regenerated output diverges from a committed baseline.
• YAML-compatible syntax — no new parser to learn for v0.1.

Scope and safety

Nornyx v0.1 is an executable specification layer, not a runtime. It does not implement autonomous system modification, production deployment, destructive tool use, credential handling, or arbitrary command execution. The name Nornyx is a provisional working brand (no formal legal clearance claimed).

Learn more

• Positioning
• 5-minute adoption
• Governed Package Profile
• Public boundary policy
• Nornyx Graph demo · expanded
• Schema targets and examples
• Roadmap toward a stable generalized contract language: see docs/03_ROADMAP_TO_v1_AND_BEYOND.md.

Development

git clone https://github.com/mazinmarji/nornyx && cd nornyx
pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest -q

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Copyright (c) 2026 Mazin Marji and Nornyx Contributors.