process/03-governance
Governance reference
Every phase and every debt-loop level has a named owner. Owners are represented as Authority nodes in the graph and referenced from the owner field on Gap nodes (and on Claim, EvidenceSource per the evidence model).
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Governance
Companion to `00-process-design.md`, Section 8.
Every phase and every debt-loop level has a named owner. Owners are represented as Authority nodes in the graph and referenced from the owner field on Gap nodes (and on Claim, EvidenceSource per the evidence model).
Per-phase owners
| Phase | Owner role | Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Schema | **Schema owner** | Final say on ontology-schema.yaml, attribute-types.yaml, invariants.yaml, the meta-schema, and all 02-node-kinds/ specs. Approves schema bumps. |
| 2 — Full graph | **Graph data owners** (one per cluster group) | Drive full-coverage population for their NodeKinds. Sign off on evidence freshness. |
| 3 — Generators | **Generator owners** (one per generator listed in 06-derivation-spec.md, plus the Gap sync generator) | Maintain the generator code, templates, and integration tests. |
| 4 — Wiki | **Wiki editors** | Navigation, search, page templates, asset handling. Page **content** is generated; editors do not author prose. |
| 5 — QA / delivery | **QA owner** | CI/CD pipeline, evidence-boundary checks, release gates, downstream artifact distribution, versioning enforcement. |
Per-level owners (debt loop)
| Level | Owner |
|---|---|
| 1 — Real world vs graph | **Debt-loop coordinator** runs the weekly batch review; cluster-specific graph data owners execute. |
| 2 — Graph vs docs | Schema owner (gate at PR) + relevant graph data owner (fix). |
| 3 — Process docs | Debt-loop coordinator. |
| 4 — Generators / wiki | Generator owner of the affected generator + wiki editor for navigation impact. |
| 5 — Code vs docs | Generator owner (for generator code) or QA owner (for validators / runtime helpers). |
| 6 — SDK | QA owner (releases) + schema owner (contract). |
| 7 — Interfaces | The owner of each interface (CLI, dashboard, etc.) — recorded as the Authority on the relevant Presentation node. |
Cross-cutting
The **debt-loop coordinator** is responsible for ensuring the cascade rule (`02-cascade-rule.md`) is applied on every gap closure, runs the weekly Level-1 batch review, and arbitrates priority disputes. They do **not** approve their own work — the adversarial-review rule (Section 5) still applies.
When two graph data owners disagree on a cross-cluster edge, the **schema owner** arbitrates. When schema and QA owners disagree on a release gate, the debt-loop coordinator brokers. All such arbitration outcomes land as Gap resolutions with propagationChain entries citing the deciding authority.
Human-in-the-loop is required for schema changes (any edit to ontology-schema.yaml, attribute-types.yaml, or invariants.yaml); agent-only review is sufficient for graph data changes that do not bump the schema.