About Govenant

What we do

What GOVENANT is

GOVENANT is an open standard for governed AI agents. It defines four conformance levels — Logged, Gated, Delivered, Earned — that enforce real accountability: actions prevented by construction, outcomes verified in the record, silence detectable per duty, and autonomy earned on evidence. The standard is free under CC BY 4.0, stewardable by anyone, and proven on its own published failed audits.

The problem: performed autonomy

Most AI agents exhibit 'performed autonomy' — they appear to work but self-report completion without substrate verification, skip jobs silently, and operate outside their intended charter. GOVENANT names this disease and provides the cure: three laws (Prevention, Assertion, Coverage) enforced at the architecture level, not as sticky notes.

The four conformance levels

GOVENANT-1 (Logged): every action recorded. GOVENANT-2 (Gated): no acting outside charter; artifacts pass a validation gate. GOVENANT-3 (Delivered): 'done' means a verified outcome exists; coverage diffed daily. GOVENANT-4 (Earned): autonomy earned per task on evidence, revoked on one breach; risky actions stay human forever. Self-assessed and open to challenge — no stamps, just probe logs.

Pricing

Business model and monetization

GOVENANT is currently free and open under CC BY 4.0 — the standard, audit instrument, and anti-pattern taxonomy are all public. Future monetization will mirror the SOC 2 / ISO 27001 model: paid certification for organizations that want a formal, third-party-verified conformance credential. The open standard drives adoption; certification captures value once GOVENANT conformance becomes a market expectation.

How it works

How conformance works

Organizations self-assess their agents against the GOVENANT levels, claim their level, and cite the probe log as evidence. The verdict is the minimum of the load-bearing pillars. The specification, audit instrument, and anti-pattern taxonomy are all open under CC BY. The reference implementation has been audited three times — two failures published openly.