Governed Agentic Development Framework

Policy-governed, AI-assisted software development on top of GitHub. The framework has two components — the rules, and the client that acts under them.

1. Governance Content — the policies, knowledge structure, agent harness, and install manifest that define how your org governs agentic work. Ships in framework/ in this repo; your org adopts it and keeps it current.
2. Governance Actions — prj (npm @svayam-opensource/prj): the client you run to take governed actions (start work, assign owners, create tasks, finish) — entirely on GitHub, under the Content's policy. Run prj and follow the menus; you don't memorize commands.

This repo is the source of truth for both components. For who does what — framework maintainers, governance-repo admins, and developers — see the operating model.

Governance Content (framework/)

What it is

Everything that defines your governance, with no org-specific values baked in (those live in your org-config.yaml, read at runtime):

• Policies — framework/knowledge/policies/ (the agentic-development policy & procedures, roles, data classification, the knowledge-organization standard, …).
• Knowledge structure + starters — the knowledge/ taxonomy and seed docs your org builds on.
• Agent harness — the canonical session-start protocol (agent/session-protocol.md), rendered to each tool's rules file (CLAUDE.md, .cursor/…, AGENTS.md, .clinerules/…, …) by scripts/render-harness.sh, plus the enforcement gate. See docs/session-start-protocol.md for how it runs and how an admin customizes it.
• Install manifest — framework/MANIFEST.yaml: what scaffolds where, and what an upgrade may touch vs. what your org owns (never overwritten).

Adopt & keep it current

• Adopt (new org): seed framework/ into your governance repo and configure it (org-config.yaml, git remotes). Steps: operating model → path (b).
• Upgrade: prj upgrade — pulls the latest content from this repo and 3-way-merges it, preserving your org-config.yaml and customizations.
• Propose a change: prj knowledge for org-local knowledge; a PR against this repo's framework/ for changes that should reach all adopters.

Governance Actions (prj)

Purpose

One client for the whole governed project lifecycle on GitHub. Instead of hand-managing boards, branches, and issues, you run prj, pick what you want to do, and it performs the action under policy — keeping ownership, status, and history consistent. The goal is not for you to learn every command — just to run prj and follow the journeys below.

Install

npm i -g @svayam-opensource/prj

Runtime prerequisites (not npm dependencies — prj is bash): bash, git, gh (authenticated), yq, python3. On Windows, run inside Git Bash.

Sequencing — Content first, then Actions

prj acts on a configured governance workspace. Set up Governance Content first, then use prj:

• First-time adopter (governance owner/admin): adopt the Content (above) into your org's governance repo and configure it, then install and run prj. See operating model → path (b).
• Developer in an org that already runs the framework: don't re-adopt or re-run setup. npm i -g @svayam-opensource/prj, get the workspace location from your governance admin, and run prj inside it (or point $ADF_WORKSPACE at it). Content questions — policies, knowledge, who owns what — go to your governance admin. See operating model → path (c).

Run prj from anywhere inside the workspace (it finds it via $ADF_WORKSPACE or the nearest org-config.yaml).

Dependencies — GitHub is the substrate

prj keeps no separate database. Every fact lives in GitHub:

Journeys — how do I…?

You don't need the command list. Run prj and follow the menu (every step is back-navigable — pick 0) ← back anytime). Common paths:

| I want to… | Do this | |---|---| | See the projects | prj → list (ongoing) — or prj manage list-all for the full board universe | | Assign a project / set its owner | prj manage → Project → owners → add (grants board access + marks the anchor issue's owner) | | Start working on a project | prj work → pick the project → it ensures the project is set up and opens it in your agent, with the session-start protocol already running | | Start a task (parallel work on an issue) | prj work → pick project → New branch → pick the issue(s) | | Continue existing work | prj work → pick project → Existing branch → pick it | | Finish a task / close a project | prj work → pick project → pick the branch → Finish (merges the task, or closes the project through the governance gate) | | Propose a policy or knowledge change | prj knowledge |

Fuller, step-by-step journeys live in framework/knowledge/ under paths / development procedures.

Operating model — who does what

• Maintainers / contributors evolve the framework here (Content under framework/ + the prj CLI at the root) and publish it (content by merge; CLI to npm).
• Governance-repo admins adopt the Content into their org's repo, prj upgrade to stay current, and propose changes back.
• Developers npm i -g @svayam-opensource/prj and use it to do governed work.

Full who-does-what, step by step: docs/operating-model.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Copyright (c) 2026 Svayam Infoware Private Limited and contributors.