RFC Document
RFC-NVS-GOV-0001
SensOS Ecosystem Master Governance Specification
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- Version: 1.4.0
- Date: 2026-07-26
- Status: Normative Governance Specification (SSOT)
- Category: Ecosystem Governance Standard
- Target Domain: sensos.org / GemminAI GitHub Repositories
- Governing Body: SensOS RFC Editorial Board / Governance Maintainers
- Governing References: docs/Governance/RFC_GOVERNANCE_PLAN.md, docs/RFC_MAP.md
0. Fundamental Governance Principles (Ecosystem Constitution)
All specifications, code contributions, and operational workflows across the SensOS ecosystem SHALL adhere to five immutable constitutional principles:
- Specification Before Implementation: No production capability, system interface, or Application Binary Interface (ABI) modification SHALL be merged into main branches without an Active or Standard RFC specification governing its design.
- Canonical Documentation Over Duplicated Documentation: sensos.org serves as the Single Source of Truth (SSOT). Documentation SHALL NOT be duplicated across repository README files when a canonical specification URL exists.
- Deterministic Governance Over Ad Hoc Decisions: Architectural state transitions, compliance validations, and release criteria MUST be governed by machine-verifiable CI gates rather than informal manual consensus.
- Automated Verification Over Manual Assertion: Implementation claims (e.g., CI Verified) MUST be continuously derived from machine-readable test artifacts (pytest, ctest, mypy) rather than manual assertions.
- Backward Compatibility Unless Explicitly Superseded: Public API contracts (/v1), protocol wire formats, and C-ABIs MUST preserve semantic backward compatibility unless formally deprecated through a successor RFC.
1. Executive Summary & Ecosystem Scope
This normative specification establishes binding operational rules, change control protocols, exception policies, and automated compliance machine-interfaces across all SensOS ecosystem repositories (GemminAI/nvs-runtime, GemminAI/hekb, GemminAI/nvs-kernel).
1.1 Target Application Scope Matrix (Applies To)
All governance policies, Layer 0 identity rules, and compliance requirements defined in this specification SHALL apply to the following minimum component versions:
| Component / Subsystem | Target Repository | Minimum Compliant Version | Canonical URL / Endpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developer Portal SSOT | sensos.org | ≥ 1.0.0 | https://sensos.org |
| SensOS Observation Runtime | GemminAI/nvs-runtime | ≥ 1.0.0 | https://sensos.org/Products/SensOS |
| HEKB Knowledge Substrate | GemminAI/hekb | ≥ 1.0.0 | https://sensos.org/Products/HEKB |
| NVS-Kernel Engine | GemminAI/nvs-kernel | ≥ 5.0.0 | https://sensos.org/rfc/RFC-NVS-0100 |
1.2 Structured RFC Namespace Taxonomy
To ensure structured scalability across hundreds of specifications, RFC identifiers SHALL be categorized using standard domain prefixes:
| Category Prefix | Domain Classification | Description & Scope |
|---|---|---|
| RFC-NVS-GOV-xxxx | Ecosystem Governance | Constitutional policies, release processes, site IA, and compliance workflows. |
| RFC-NVS-ABI-xxxx | Application Binary Interface | C-ABI layouts, memory ownership rules, and Layer-Port struct definitions. |
| RFC-NVS-PROTO-xxxx | Protocols & Networking | Dynamic Layer Negotiation (DLNP), Distributed Mesh (SDRP), and wire formats. |
| RFC-NVS-ARCH-xxxx | System Architecture | High-level system topology, separation paradigms, and state models. |
| RFC-NVS-INFO-xxxx | Informational / Whitepapers | Theoretical foundations (Meaning Physics), comparative positioning, and guides. |
2. Change Control Workflow (RFC Change Protocol)
To preserve architectural integrity and prevent unauthorized modifications to canonical specifications, all RFC creation, modification, and status transitions MUST strictly follow the 5-Stage Change Control Workflow:
+-------------------+ +-------------------+ +-------------------+
| 1. Proposal | —> | 2. Editorial | —> | 3. Technical |
| (PR / Draft RFC) | | Review | | Review |
+-------------------+ +-------------------+ +-------------------+
|
+-------------------+ +-------------------+ v
| 5. Portal | <--- | 4. CI | <-----------------+
| Publication | | Validation |
+-------------------+ +-------------------+
2.1 Workflow Stages & Approval Gates
- Stage 1: Proposal (Draft Submission):
- Contributor submits a Pull Request (PR) containing a formatted RFC document to docs/ or sensos.org/rfc/.
- Assigned initial state: Draft. RFC ID allocated by the RFC Editorial Board / Governance Maintainers.
- Stage 2: Editorial Review:
- Editorial Board verifies Layer 0 metadata, RFC 2119 keyword usage (MUST, SHOULD), formatting compliance, and supersession links.
- Gate Approval: Minimum 1 Editorial Board review approval.
- Stage 3: Technical Review & Architecture Gate:
- Architecture Working Group evaluates technical soundness, C-ABI / REST API stability, and cross-specification consistency (RFC_CONSISTENCY_AUDIT_REPORT.md).
- State transitions from Draft to Active.
- Stage 4: CI Validation & Implementation Audit:
- Automated CI pipeline (rfc-auditor) verifies that normative claims marked CI Verified pass 100% of corresponding unit/integration test suites with zero warnings/mypy strict errors.
- State transitions from Active to Standard.
- Stage 5: Portal Publication:
- Static site generation pipeline builds and deploys canonical rendered HTML to https://sensos.org/rfc/RFC-NVS-XXXX.
3. Temporary Exception Policy (Drift Governance)
Under exceptional operational circumstances, temporary documentation drift between code repositories and sensos.org MAY be permitted subject to strict time and approval bounds.
3.1 Exception Conditions & Limits
- Maximum Permissible Window: Temporary exceptions SHALL NOT exceed 14 calendar days from approval.
- Mandatory Issue Reference: Every exception MUST be bound to an open tracking GitHub Issue (e.g., Issue #142: Temporary DLNP Header Drift).
- Approval Authority: Formal approval MUST be granted by at least two members of the SensOS RFC Editorial Board / Governance Maintainers.
- Remediation Requirement: If a temporary exception is not remediated within 14 days, CI pipelines SHALL automatically fail dependent build workflows (CI FAIL).
4. Machine-Readable Compliance & Portal Metadata Protocol
To enable automated compliance auditing by IDE plugins, CI runners, and MCP agents, sensos.org MUST publish versioned, machine-readable JSON interfaces.
4.1 Compliance Index Schema (/compliance/index.json)
{
“$schema”: “https://sensos.org/schemas/compliance-v1.json”,
“schema_version”: “1.0.0”,
“api_version”: “1.0”,
“generated_at”: “2026-07-26T16:00:00Z”,
“environment”: “production”,
“health_metrics”: {
“total_rfcs”: 8,
“broken_links”: 0,
“unresolved_supersessions”: 0,
“normative_clauses_count”: 142,
“audit_passed”: true
},
“specifications”: {
“RFC-NVS-0100”: {
“title”: “NVS-Kernel Public API Contract”,
“category”: “RFC-NVS-ABI”,
“status”: “Standard”,
“implementation_status”: “Implemented”,
“target_repository”: “GemminAI/nvs-kernel”,
“test_suite_pass_rate”: “185/185”,
“ci_status”: “PASSED”,
“canonical_url”: “https://sensos.org/rfc/RFC-NVS-0100”
},
“RFC-NVS-0199”: {
“title”: “NVS Capability & Authorization Model (CBAC)”,
“category”: “RFC-NVS-GOV”,
“status”: “Standard”,
“implementation_status”: “Implemented”,
“target_repository”: “GemminAI/nvs-runtime”,
“test_suite_pass_rate”: “100%”,
“ci_status”: “PASSED”,
“canonical_url”: “https://sensos.org/rfc/RFC-NVS-0199”
}
}
}
4.2 Portal Metadata Read Endpoints (Agent Introspection)
To allow AI agents, MCP servers, and Developer Tools (Cursor, Claude Code) to programmatically inspect the ecosystem, sensos.org exposes public read-only JSON endpoints:
- GET https://sensos.org/api/v1/compliance — Returns the latest complete ecosystem compliance index.
- GET https://sensos.org/api/v1/rfc/{rfc_id} — Returns structured JSON metadata, status, and raw markdown for a given RFC.
- GET https://sensos.org/api/v1/products — Returns Layer 0 product identity maps and repository links.
4.3 Automated Generation Rule
- Manual Editing Prohibited: Manual modification of compliance/index.json is strictly prohibited (MUST NOT).
- CI Artifact Generation: The JSON file SHALL be compiled exclusively during post-test CI steps (scripts/rfc_auditor.py) and pushed directly to the sensos.org static asset distribution pipeline.
5. Governance Health Metrics & Audit Engine
The health and consistency of the specification ecosystem SHALL be continuously monitored using automated metrics generated by the scripts/rfc_auditor.py CI tool:
| Metric Indicator | Description | Target Health Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Broken Link Ratio | Ratio of broken cross-specification markdown links. | 0% (Zero Tolerated) |
| Unresolved Supersessions | Specifications marked Superseded lacking valid successor links. | 0 (Zero Tolerated) |
| SSOT Compliance Rate | Repositories fully compliant with Layer 0 Identity & Header block rules. | 100% |
| Artifact Freshness | Elapsed time since last automated /compliance/index.json compilation. | < 24 Hours |
| Open Exception Drift | Active temporary drift exceptions approaching or exceeding 14 days. | 0 Overdue |
6. Governance Document Taxonomy & Repository Hierarchy
To ensure consistent taxonomy across all repositories, governance specifications SHALL be organized under the standardized docs/Governance/ directory structure:
docs/
└── Governance/
├── GOVERNANCE_SPEC.md # Master Governance Specification (RFC-NVS-GOV-0001)
├── RFC_GOVERNANCE_PLAN.md # Developer Portal & Site IA Plan
├── RFC_EDITORIAL_POLICY.md # Style Guide, RFC 2119 Rules, and Metadata Standards
└── RFC_CHANGE_CONTROL.md # Detailed Workflow & Exception Log
7. Revision History
- 2026-07-26 (v1.0.0): Initial README Remediation Directive.
- 2026-07-26 (v1.1.0): Integrated Layer 0 Identity Audit and dynamic governance delegation.
- 2026-07-26 (v1.2.0): Formally promoted to Governance Specification with RFC Editorial Board authority and CI compliance matrix rules.
- 2026-07-26 (v1.3.0 / RFC-NVS-GOV-0001): Established 5-stage RFC Change Control Workflow, 14-day Temporary Exception Policy, Applies To version scope matrix, machine-readable /compliance/index.json schema, and standardized docs/Governance/ taxonomy.
- 2026-07-26 (v1.4.0): Incorporated Section 0 Constitutional Governance Principles, categorized RFC namespace taxonomy (GOV, ABI, PROTO, ARCH, INFO), schema/API versioning for compliance JSON, Portal Metadata API endpoints for agent introspection, and automated Governance Health Metrics.