Open-source meta-framework. This repository is the public extract of the AI Governance framework: the governance engine, the constitution + rules of procedure (meta-framework), and infrastructure. Subject-matter domains (AI coding, multi-agent, etc.) are maintained privately and are not included here.

AI Governance MCP Server

A semantic retrieval system that gives AI assistants on-demand access to domain-specific governance principles — a queryable "second brain" of encoded standards.

Why this exists

The engineering stack for AI systems has five layers:

• Prompt engineering — how you phrase the request (role, task, instructions, output format).
• Retrieval engineering — how you get your information into the AI (RAG, vector search, semantic and hybrid indexing, reranking).
• Context engineering — what you put in front of the model for the task at hand (memory, conversation history, tool outputs, retrieved material).
• Harness engineering — the environment you build around the model so it can't repeat its mistakes (orchestration, guardrails, approval gates, feedback loops, evaluation, observability, durable state).
• Intent engineering — principles, methods, and enforcement that run across every layer. What the system is optimizing for, including in cases no one anticipated.

The first four form a structural stack — each layer contains the ones below it. Intent engineering runs across all of them, defining what the system is ultimately trying to accomplish. Without it, the other layers optimize without knowing what for.

Most AI tools stop at the first three. They phrase prompts, retrieve reference material, and assemble context. They don't tell the AI what judgment to apply — which standards matter, which constraints can't be traded off, what "done" looks like.

This project is infrastructure for the intent layer. It doesn't make AI smarter. It encodes the principles and methods that define what good work looks like, makes them retrievable at the moment of the AI's decision through MCP tools, and gates file-modifying actions on prior consultation through hooks.

For the founding intent in the author's voice, see the Declaration in documents/constitution.md.

The Problem

AI assistants are powerful, but without structured guidance they can:

• Hallucinate requirements instead of asking for clarification
• Skip validation steps in complex workflows
• Apply inconsistent approaches across similar problems
• Miss critical safety considerations

Loading full governance documents (~55K+ tokens) into context is wasteful and often exceeds limits. Simple keyword search misses semantically related concepts.

The Solution

This MCP server provides hybrid semantic retrieval of governance principles:

• Near-zero miss rate in hybrid retrieval for in-domain queries — combined keyword + semantic search with reranking. See tests/benchmarks/ for formal Recall@K measurements on a fixed query set.
• Sub-100ms retrieval latency in typical use on a developer laptop; reproduce via python -m ai_governance_mcp.server --test "<query>".
• Smart domain routing — automatic identification of relevant knowledge domains.
• Cross-encoder reranking — most relevant principles surface first.

Query: "how do I handle incomplete specifications?"
→ Routes to: ai-coding domain
→ Returns: coding-context-specification-completeness with HIGH confidence
→ Time: 45ms

Query: "help me develop my protagonist's character arc"
→ Routes to: storytelling domain
→ Returns: storytelling-ST3-transformation-arc with HIGH confidence
→ Time: 48ms

The Governance Framework

Most people use AI as-is. This project implements a systematic governance framework that is retrievable, auditable, and structurally enforceable at the moment of the AI's decision — then operationalizes it through an MCP server.

The framework uses a 7-layer governance hierarchy modeled on the US Constitutional system: immutable Safety Principles (Bill of Rights), Constitution, Domain Statutes, Rules of Procedure, Domain Regulations, Tool SOPs, and accumulating Secondary Authority (Reference Library). See documents/constitution.md for the full operative hierarchy and the Declaration of founding intent.

Available Domains

Domains are modular and self-describing. The system discovers domains automatically from the documents/ directory — drop in a title-NN-domainname.md file with YAML frontmatter and the server picks it up. Remove a file and the domain disappears. No registry edits, no code changes.

<!-- Verify counts: python -c "import json; d=json.load(open('index/global_index.json'))['domains']; [print(f'{k}: {len(v.get("principles",[]))}p, {len(v.get("methods",[]))}m') for k,v in d.items()]" -->

Shipped domains:

Domain	Principles	Methods	Coverage
Constitution	24	236	Universal AI behavior, safety, quality
AI Coding	16	277	Software development, testing, deployment
Multi-Agent	17	54	Agent orchestration, handoffs, autonomous operation
Storytelling	15	42	Creative writing, narrative, voice preservation
Multimodal RAG	32	65	Image retrieval, visual presentation, agentic retrieval
UI/UX	20	47	Visual hierarchy, accessibility, interaction design
KM&PD	10	40	Knowledge management, people development, training
Accounting	12	29	Double-entry bookkeeping, reconciliation, tax prep, QBO integration

<details> <summary><b>Adding a custom domain</b></summary>

1. Create documents/title-NN-yourdomain.md with YAML frontmatter:

   ---
   domain: "your-domain"
   prefix: "yd"
   display_name: "Your Domain"
   description: "Keywords for semantic domain routing..."
   priority: 50
   ---
   

2. Optionally create documents/title-NN-yourdomain-cfr.md for methods (discovered by convention).
3. Rebuild the index: python -m ai_governance_mcp.extractor
4. Restart the server. list_domains now includes your domain.

Frontmatter fields: domain (required — the machine name), prefix (principle ID prefix, e.g. "yd" → IDs like yd-category-title), display_name (human-readable), description (used for semantic domain routing — include keywords for your domain's topics), priority (sort order; 0 = highest). An optional domains.json can override any frontmatter field without editing the markdown files.

Removing a domain: Delete or move the title-NN-*.md file. Rebuild the index and restart.

</details>

Architecture

Component	Technology	Purpose
Server	MCP Python SDK	Official MCP SDK (mcp.server.Server)
Embeddings	sentence-transformers (BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5)	Semantic similarity
Keyword Search	rank-bm25	BM25 keyword matching
Reranking	CrossEncoder	Result refinement
Data Models	Pydantic	Validation & typing
Storage	In-memory (NumPy)	Fast retrieval

Build Time:
  documents/*.md → extractor.py → global_index.json + embeddings.npy

Runtime:
  Query → Domain Router → Hybrid Search → Reranker → Hierarchy Filter → Results
          (semantic)    (BM25+semantic)  (cross-encoder)

Retrieval pipeline:

1. Domain Routing — query embedding similarity identifies relevant domains
2. Hybrid Search — BM25 (keywords) + dense vectors (semantic) in parallel
3. Score Fusion — weighted combination (60% semantic, 40% keyword)
4. Reranking — cross-encoder scores top 20 candidates
5. Hierarchy Filter — S-Series (safety) always prioritized

How It Works

23 MCP Tools (2 Servers)

Governance Server (16 tools):

Tool	Purpose
evaluate_governance	Pre-action compliance check — PROCEED/MODIFY/ESCALATE
query_governance	Main retrieval with confidence scores
verify_governance_compliance	Post-action audit verification
search_references	Search Reference Library for implementation precedent
get_principle	Full content by ID (principles, methods, and references)
list_domains	Available domains with stats
get_domain_summary	Domain exploration
log_feedback	Quality tracking
get_metrics	Performance analytics
install_agent	Install governance subagent (Claude Code only)
uninstall_agent	Remove installed subagent
list_agents	Discover available agents (cross-platform)
log_governance_reasoning	Record per-principle reasoning traces for audit
scaffold_project	Create governance memory files for new projects
capture_reference	Create Reference Library entries from real application
analyze_feedback_loop	Read precomputed feedback loop analysis of server logs

Context Engine Server (7 tools):

Tool	Purpose
query_project	Semantic + keyword search across project content
index_project	Trigger re-index of current project
list_projects	Show all indexed projects
project_status	Index stats for current project
find_references	Structural code references — who imports/calls/extends a symbol
build_knowledge_graph	Build LLM-based knowledge graph from indexed content (opt-in, has LLM cost)
query_knowledge_graph	Query the knowledge graph for entity/relationship information

Governance enforcement:

• evaluate_governance evaluates planned actions against principles BEFORE execution, auto-detects S-Series (safety) concerns, and returns PROCEED, REVIEW, or ESCALATE. REVIEW means relevant principles were surfaced — read and apply them. S-Series violations force ESCALATE with human review. Every call logs an audit_id.
• verify_governance_compliance checks whether governance was consulted for a completed action — catches bypassed checks after the fact.
• log_governance_reasoning captures per-principle reasoning traces for the audit trail.

Subagent installation (Claude Code):

The install_agent tool provides 10 specialized subagents:

• orchestrator — governance coordination (ensures evaluate_governance() is called)
• code-reviewer — fresh-context code review against explicit criteria
• security-auditor — OWASP-aligned vulnerability detection
• test-generator — behavior-focused test creation
• documentation-writer — technical writing specialist
• validator — criteria-based quality validation
• contrarian-reviewer — devil's advocate for high-stakes decisions
• coherence-auditor — documentation drift detection
• continuity-auditor — narrative consistency verification
• voice-coach — character voice distinction analysis

Other platforms receive agent definitions as adaptable reference material via install_agent.

Example Usage

Add the MCP server to your AI assistant's configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-governance": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "ai_governance_mcp.server"]
    }
  }
}

Then the AI invokes governance automatically:

User: "I need to implement a login system"

AI uses query_governance("implementing authentication system")
→ Returns coding-quality-security-first-development + coding-context-specification-completeness
→ AI knows to: verify security requirements, ask about auth method preferences

Results

Metric	Target	Observed (approximate)
Miss Rate	<1%	Near-zero on in-domain queries (hybrid retrieval; see tests/benchmarks/ for Recall@K)
Latency	<100ms	~50ms typical (author-observed on a developer laptop)
Token Savings	>90%	~98% (1-3K retrieved vs 55K+ if full docs loaded into context)
Test Coverage	80%	~90% governance, ~65% context engine (run pytest --cov for current metrics)

Metrics are author-observed on a developer laptop and are not a controlled benchmark. Reproduce via pytest --cov for coverage, python -m ai_governance_mcp.server --test "<query>" for retrieval latency, and tests/benchmarks/ for formal retrieval-quality measurements.

Quick Start

The fastest path is Docker + Claude Desktop:

1. Install Docker Desktop from docker.com.
2. Pull the image: docker pull jason21wc/ai-governance-mcp:latest
3. Edit your Claude Desktop config file:
   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
4. Add the MCP server (merge into your existing mcpServers block):

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "ai-governance": {
         "command": "docker",
         "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "jason21wc/ai-governance-mcp:latest"]
       }
     }
   }
   

5. Restart Claude Desktop and test: "Query governance for handling incomplete specifications".

Governance enforcement is active by default. The Docker image uses the enforcement proxy in soft mode — action tools warn if evaluate_governance() hasn't been called, but do not block. For advisory-only (no enforcement): "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "jason21wc/ai-governance-mcp:latest", "python", "-m", "ai_governance_mcp.server"].

<details> <summary><b>Step-by-step walkthroughs: Windows, macOS, Windsurf</b></summary>

Windows (Docker Desktop)

1. Install Docker Desktop from https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/
2. In Docker Desktop → Search → jason21wc/ai-governance-mcp → Pull
3. Open File Explorer → paste %APPDATA%\Claude → open claude_desktop_config.json in Notepad
4. Add the "ai-governance" block shown above under "mcpServers" (remember the comma if you have other servers)
5. Save, restart Claude Desktop, test

macOS (Docker Desktop)

docker pull jason21wc/ai-governance-mcp:latest
open -a TextEdit ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the "ai-governance" block under "mcpServers", save, restart Claude Desktop.

Windsurf

Windsurf supports MCP through Cascade. Config file: ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json. Add the same "ai-governance" block. In Cascade chat → hammer icon → Configure → View raw config.

</details>

First Five: Critical Reasoning Disciplines

Every evaluate_governance call returns a critical 5 scaffold — the five reasoning disciplines most often violated in practice, selected by learning log failure frequency and user feedback patterns. These are delivered as reasoning scaffolds ("demonstrate this thinking") rather than checklists ("did you do this?"). The full universal floor (defined in documents/tiers.json) has additional constitutional principles, method references, and a subagent-applicability check.

Rule	What it asks of the AI	Canonical reference
Find the structural cause	What system, process, or design produced this? Name the structural cause, not the visible symptom. Your fix should target that.	principle: meta-core-systemic-thinking
Verify before acting	What assumption are you making right now? How have you confirmed it — from the actual source, not a review note or agent convergence?	principle: meta-quality-verification-validation
State what you don't know	Where is your uncertainty? Name it explicitly before proceeding. "I don't know" is a successful output.	principle: meta-safety-transparent-limitations
Make the call	Present your best recommendation with rationale. Don't ask what you should decide. Don't defer what you can resolve now.	behavioral: recommend-not-ask
Match effort to stakes	Is this a 3-file fix or a new subsystem? Act on what it actually is, not what it might theoretically become.	behavioral: proportional-rigor (§7.8)

Use get_principle for principle IDs; methods like §7.8 are reachable through query_governance:

get_principle("meta-core-systemic-thinking")
query_governance("proportional rigor")

Sample queries to run on day one (each surfaces additional floor items beyond the table above — e.g., the second query exercises the testing-integration method):

query_governance("how do I handle incomplete specifications")
query_governance("when should I write tests")
query_governance("how to do a security review")
query_governance("refactoring approach for legacy code")
evaluate_governance(planned_action="ship a new feature to production")

Once these feel natural, the full hierarchy in documents/constitution.md becomes navigable rather than imposing — you'll already recognize the principles you're being asked to extend.

Use via RAG (No MCP Server)

If you already have a RAG infrastructure or want to use the governance content in a non-MCP environment (ChatGPT Custom GPT, Claude Projects, Perplexity Spaces, NotebookLM, OpenAI Assistants, custom bots), you can load the documents/ folder directly as a knowledge source — no server, no hooks, no installation.

Pattern:

1. Clone or download the documents/ folder from this repo.
2. Load documents/ai-instructions.md into your platform's system prompt or "AI Instructions" field — it tells the AI how to consult the governance content.
3. Load the rest of documents/*.md (constitution, rules-of-procedure, title-NN-*.md) as the reference/knowledge corpus.

Platform mapping:

Platform	Instructions field → ai-instructions.md	Knowledge/sources → other documents/*.md
ChatGPT Custom GPT	"Instructions" field	"Knowledge" file uploads
Claude Projects	Project system prompt	Project knowledge
Perplexity Spaces	"AI Instructions"	Uploaded files
OpenAI Assistants API	instructions parameter	File Search tool
NotebookLM	(use first message as instructions)	Source documents
Poe / custom bots	System prompt	Vector store

Note on platform instruction-field limits: documents/ai-instructions.md is ~230 lines with structured XML-tag blocks. ChatGPT Custom GPT "Instructions" fields cap at 8K characters; Perplexity Spaces is tighter. If your platform's instruction field is too small, paste only the <primary_directive> + <first_response_protocol> + <mcp_integration> blocks into Instructions, and move the rest (hierarchy, memory-architecture, version-reference tables) into the knowledge corpus.

Trade-off (be explicit about it):

• ✅ You get: principles + methods content, retrieval grounding, the AI can cite specific principles by name.
• ❌ You don't get: evaluate_governance scoring + S-Series veto, hierarchy filter, verify_governance_compliance audit trail, the structural hook enforcement that blocks unconsulted file-modifying actions, or the 10 installable subagents.

In 5-layer terms: you're adopting the intent-engineering content with your own retrieval engineering around it. You're skipping the harness-engineering layer the MCP server provides. Fine for advisory use and assistants that summarize or answer questions; not sufficient when you need deterministic blocking of risky actions in an autonomous agent.

License: Framework content (documents/) is CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 — attribution required, non-commercial use only, no derivatives (you may load the files as reference; you may not modify and redistribute). Code (src/) is Apache-2.0. See LICENSE-CONTENT for the framework-content license terms.

Platform Configuration

Use the config generator for platform-specific setup — it auto-detects your installation path, generates correct environment variables, and defaults to enforcement proxy mode (soft mode):

python -m ai_governance_mcp.config_generator --platform claude    # Claude Code CLI
python -m ai_governance_mcp.config_generator --platform gemini    # Gemini CLI
python -m ai_governance_mcp.config_generator --platform chatgpt   # ChatGPT Desktop
python -m ai_governance_mcp.config_generator --platform cursor    # Cursor
python -m ai_governance_mcp.config_generator --platform windsurf  # Windsurf
python -m ai_governance_mcp.config_generator --all                # All platforms
python -m ai_governance_mcp.config_generator --json claude        # JSON output
python -m ai_governance_mcp.config_generator --json claude --no-enforce  # Advisory-only

For pip users: the config generator automatically includes AI_GOVERNANCE_INDEX_PATH and AI_GOVERNANCE_DOCUMENTS_PATH environment variables. These are required when running the server from a different directory than the project root. Docker users don't need this — paths are baked into the image.

Web-based platforms (Perplexity, Grok, Google AI Studio): use the MCP SuperAssistant Chrome Extension to bridge MCP to web clients.

Claude Code CLI and Claude Desktop have separate MCP configurations. If you use both, configure each independently.

Enforcement Proxy

The enforcement proxy (ai-governance-proxy) wraps the governance MCP server at the protocol level, intercepting JSON-RPC tool calls and blocking action tools that lack a prior evaluate_governance() call. Unlike advisory instructions that degrade over long conversations, this is structural — the AI model cannot bypass it. Works with any MCP client: Claude App, Cursor, Gemini CLI, ChatGPT Desktop, and others.

The config generator and Docker image default to enforcement proxy in soft mode. No extra setup required.

Mode	How to configure	Compliance	When to use
Advisory	--no-enforce flag or direct python -m ai_governance_mcp.server	~13% (model cooperation)	Exploration, low-stakes work
Structural (soft)	Default — ai-governance-proxy -- wraps the server	~100% (warns, does not block)	Default for new users
Structural (hard)	Set GOVERNANCE_ENFORCEMENT_SOFT_MODE=false	~100% (blocks action tools)	Production workflows

Graduating to hard mode: Once you're comfortable with the governance workflow, set GOVERNANCE_ENFORCEMENT_SOFT_MODE=false in your MCP config's env block. Action tools will be blocked (not just warned) until evaluate_governance() is called.

Phase 2 — Cross-MCP enforcement: The proxy can also wrap third-party MCP servers (GitHub, filesystem, etc.) to enforce governance before any consequential tool call. See API.md for --govern-all mode and config file format.

Key environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
GOVERNANCE_ENFORCEMENT_ENABLED	true	Master toggle
GOVERNANCE_ENFORCEMENT_SOFT_MODE	false (true in generated configs)	Warn instead of block
GOVERNANCE_RECENCY_WINDOW	50	Tool calls before governance expires

Full enforcement architecture: EXECUTION-FRAMEWORK.md §8.4. CLI reference: API.md § Enforcement Proxy.

Local Installation

For development or customization:

git clone https://github.com/jason21wc/ai-governance-mcp.git
cd ai-governance-mcp
pip install -e .                       # install with dependencies
python -m ai_governance_mcp.extractor  # build the index (first time)
python -m ai_governance_mcp.server     # run the server

Quick test:

python -m ai_governance_mcp.server --test "how do I handle incomplete specs"

Configuration

Governance Server environment variables:

export AI_GOVERNANCE_DOCUMENTS_PATH=/path/to/documents
export AI_GOVERNANCE_INDEX_PATH=/path/to/index
export AI_GOVERNANCE_EMBEDDING_MODEL=BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5
export AI_GOVERNANCE_SEMANTIC_WEIGHT=0.6

Context Engine Server environment variables:

export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_EMBEDDING_MODEL=BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_EMBEDDING_DIMENSIONS=384
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_SEMANTIC_WEIGHT=0.7
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_INDEX_PATH=~/.context-engine/indexes
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_INDEX_MODE=realtime    # 'ondemand' or 'realtime' (file watcher)
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_READONLY=auto          # 'true', 'false', or 'auto' (sandbox detection)

# Knowledge Graph (optional — requires pip install -e ".[knowledge-graph]")
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_PROVIDER=ollama       # 'ollama', 'anthropic', 'openai'
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_MODEL=                # provider-dependent model name
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_API_KEY=              # required for cloud providers
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_ENDPOINT=             # custom endpoint (non-default Ollama port, Azure, OpenAI-compatible)
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_TEMPERATURE=          # LLM temperature (default: 0.0; >0 may produce non-reproducible entity graphs)
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=fastembed
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_EMBEDDING_MODEL=          # falls back to AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_EMBEDDING_MODEL, then BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_EMBEDDING_DIMENSIONS=     # falls back to AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_EMBEDDING_DIMENSIONS, then 384

Knowledge Graph Model Recommendations

The build_knowledge_graph tool uses an LLM to extract entities and relationships from indexed content. Model choice affects extraction quality, speed, and cost. Cognee uses the instructor structured output framework by default, which works with all recommended models.

Local (zero cost, recommended for development):

Model	Memory	Active Params	Notes
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B MoE (MLX 4-bit)	~20 GB	3B	Best quality/speed ratio. 73.4% SWE-bench. Grammar-constrained JSON via Outlines (LM Studio) or GBNF (Ollama).
Qwen 3.6 27B dense (MLX 4-bit)	~10 GB	27B	Higher per-token reasoning. Better for code review tasks.
Llama 3.3 70B (Q4)	~40 GB	70B	Highest quality local option. Requires 64GB+ unified memory.

# Example: Qwen 3.6 MoE via LM Studio (recommended — MLX acceleration on Apple Silicon)
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_PROVIDER=custom
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_MODEL=lm_studio/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_ENDPOINT=http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_API_KEY=.

# Alternative: Qwen 3.6 MoE via Ollama (GGUF)
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_PROVIDER=ollama
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_MODEL=hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-GGUF:Q4_K_M

Cloud — cost per 500-chunk KG build (approximate):

Model	Input $/M	Output $/M	~Cost/build	Provider
GPT-4o mini	$0.15	$0.60	$0.45	openai
GPT-4.1 mini	$0.40	$1.60	$1.20	openai
Qwen 3.6 Plus	$0.325	$1.95	$1.14+	openai (compatible endpoint)
Claude Haiku 4.5	$1.00	$5.00	$3.25	anthropic
GPT-4.1	$2.00	$8.00	$6.00	openai

# Example: GPT-4.1 mini (best cost/quality for cloud)
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_PROVIDER=openai
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_MODEL=gpt-4.1-mini
export AI_CONTEXT_ENGINE_COGNEE_LLM_API_KEY=sk-...

Not recommended: Gemini 2.5 models have documented structured output issues (as of May 2026).

Context Engine Server

The Context Engine is a separate MCP server that provides semantic search across your project's source code and documents. It complements the Governance Server by providing project-specific content awareness.

Aspect	Governance Server	Context Engine
Content	Governance principles & methods	Your project's files
Index	Pre-built, ships with image	Built per-project on first use
Purpose	"What should I do?"	"What exists and where?"

Quick setup (ask your AI coding assistant to run these):

claude mcp add ai-context-engine -- python -m ai_governance_mcp.context_engine.server
context-engine-service install --projects /path/to/your/project
context-engine-service status

The watcher daemon keeps indexes fresh automatically. It auto-restarts every ~12h (configurable via --max-uptime-hours) to flush the PyTorch CPU allocator cache. Platform-specific service installation: LaunchAgent (macOS), systemd user service (Linux), Task Scheduler (Windows).

Sandboxed environments (Cowork, Docker, CI): the engine auto-detects read-only filesystems and enters read-only mode — queries work against pre-built indexes; writes are blocked. Pattern: index once, query everywhere. Build indexes from a writable environment; all environments query the same indexes at ~/.context-engine/indexes/.

Features: file watcher with debounce/cooldown, circuit breaker on consecutive failures, hybrid search (semantic + keyword), code/markdown/PDF/spreadsheet/image support, .contextignore file support, atomic file writes, corrupt file recovery, LRU project eviction.

Troubleshooting

"0 domains" or empty principles: CLI and Desktop configs are separate systems. Check both have AI_GOVERNANCE_DOCUMENTS_PATH and AI_GOVERNANCE_INDEX_PATH set (pip installs only; Docker bakes paths into the image).

S-Series false positives: evaluate_governance flags safety-adjacent keywords in planned_action text. If s_series_check.principles is empty but triggered=true, the trigger is keyword-only — document the override in your reasoning trace and proceed.

CI failing on hook tests: hooks require shell matching Bash|Edit|Write. Verify .claude/settings.json PreToolUse matcher includes all three.

Index stale after document edit: the extractor rebuilds the full index in ~30 seconds. For incremental updates during development, restart the MCP server — indexes are in-memory and reload on server start.

Project Structure

ai-governance-mcp/
├── src/ai_governance_mcp/
│   ├── models.py            # Pydantic data structures
│   ├── config.py            # Settings management
│   ├── extractor.py         # Document parsing + embeddings
│   ├── retrieval.py         # Hybrid search engine
│   ├── server/              # Governance MCP server + 16 tools (package)
│   ├── config_generator.py  # Multi-platform MCP configs
│   ├── validator.py         # Principle ID validation
│   └── context_engine/      # Context Engine MCP (4 tools)
├── documents/               # Governance documents (Constitutional naming)
│   ├── constitution.md      # Meta-Principles (Articles I-IV, Bill of Rights)
│   ├── rules-of-procedure.md # Constitution Methods (amendment process, authoring)
│   ├── title-NN-domain.md   # Domain principles (Federal Statutes)
│   ├── title-NN-domain-cfr.md # Domain methods (Code of Federal Regulations)
│   └── domains.json         # Optional domain overrides (domains discovered from files)
├── .claude/skills/          # Executable skills (completion-sequence-aigov, compliance-review, test-authoring, content-enhancer)
├── reference-library/       # Accumulating applied patterns (secondary authority)
├── .claude/
│   ├── agents/              # Installed subagents
│   └── hooks/               # Enforcement hooks (PreToolUse, UserPromptSubmit, pre-push)
├── index/                   # Generated index + embeddings
└── tests/                   # ~1728 tests across governance + context engine

Dogfooding

This project is built using its own governance framework. Development follows the AI Coding framework (SPECIFY → PLAN → TASKS → IMPLEMENT) encoded in documents/title-10-ai-coding.md, with explicit gate criteria per phase. Decisions are logged through evaluate_governance + log_governance_reasoning. The framework's own hooks enforce governance consultation on source edits to this repo. Lessons from applying the framework to itself are captured in LEARNING-LOG.md — including corrections when the framework fails its own standards.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"   # install dev dependencies
pre-commit install        # enable pre-commit hooks

Test suite covers governance (~90% coverage) and context engine (~65%). Run pytest --collect-only -q | tail -1 for current count.

pytest tests/ -v                                           # full suite
pytest -m "not slow" tests/                                # fast tests only (skip real ML models)
pytest --cov=ai_governance_mcp --cov-report=html tests/    # coverage report
pytest -m real_index tests/                                # real-index tests only

Tests include real index validation and actual ML model tests (marked @pytest.mark.slow).

Security scanning (included in dev dependencies):

pip-audit       # scan dependencies for vulnerabilities
bandit -r src/  # scan source code for security issues
safety check    # check for known vulnerabilities

Roadmap

Distribution & Deployment

• [x] Docker containerization with security hardening
• [x] Docker Hub publishing (jason21wc/ai-governance-mcp:latest)
• [ ] Public API with authentication

Architecture Enhancements

• [x] AI-driven modification assessment (hybrid: script-layer S-Series detection + AI-layer principle conflict analysis)
• [x] Improved method embedding quality (MRR 0.0 → 0.698)
• [x] Context Engine MCP server with watcher daemon
• [ ] Governance effectiveness measurement (see BACKLOG.md #22 for scope)

Content

• [x] 8 shipped domains + modular custom domain support (drop in title-NN-name.md, rebuild index)
• [ ] Visual communication domain (presentations, reports, print design — see BACKLOG #6)
• [ ] Autonomous operations domain (see BACKLOG #11)

Full roadmap discussion and open questions live in BACKLOG.md.

About

Built by Jason as a showcase of:

• Semantic retrieval patterns for knowledge-intensive applications
• AI governance frameworks for retrievable, enforceable governance principles
• MCP integration for extending AI assistant capabilities

The governance framework itself is the key innovation — the MCP server is its operational implementation.

Built with the AI Governance Framework — Constitution, Rules of Procedure, and modular domain statutes. See documents/ai-instructions.md for current domain versions.

License

This project uses dual licensing:

• Source code (src/, tests/, scripts/, build files): Apache License 2.0
• Framework content (documents/, index/): CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 — Copyright (c) 2026 Jason Collier