Get started

Node 20+. No account. No network calls. About fifteen minutes.

Install

npm install @senscheck/governance-core
npx @senscheck/governance-cli init

init writes a starter senscheck.config.json, an example wrapper, and a .gitignore entry for receipts.

Wrap a function

import { SensCheckGovernance, StaticAuthorityProvider } from "@senscheck/governance-core";
import { rm } from "node:fs/promises";

const governance = new SensCheckGovernance({
  policies: [{
    version: 1,
    default: "FAIL_CLOSED",
    rules: [
      { id: "deny-etc", when: { resource: "file:/etc/*" }, decision: "DENY" },
      { id: "allow-delete", when: { verb: "DELETE", resource: "file:*" }, decision: "ALLOW" },
    ],
  }],
  authorityProvider: new StaticAuthorityProvider([{
    principalId: "coding-agent", verbs: ["*"], resources: ["*"],
    expiresAt: new Date(Date.now() + 3600_000).toISOString(),
    grantedBy: { id: "ops-oncall", type: "human" },
  }]),
  defaultPrincipal: { id: "coding-agent", type: "agent" },
});

export const safeDelete = governance.wrapFunction((path: string) => rm(path, { recursive: true }), {
  verb: "DELETE",
  resource: (path) => `file:${path}`,
  risk: "HIGH",
});

Calling safeDelete("/srv/build") now throws GovernanceBlockedError with REQUIRE_APPROVAL, because HIGH risk needs a human and none has approved. rm is never called.

Add human approval

import { StaticApprovalProvider } from "@senscheck/governance-core";
const approvals = new StaticApprovalProvider();
// pass approvalProvider: approvals to SensCheckGovernance, then, from a human-facing surface only:
approvals.approve(effectDigest, { id: "alice@example.com", type: "human" });

The approval binds to that one effect, is checked for freshness, and works once. Keep approve() out of the agent's reach.

The CLI

npx @senscheck/governance-cli check     # validate your policy file
npx @senscheck/governance-cli test      # 21 fail-closed behavioural checks
npx @senscheck/governance-cli audit .   # heuristic list of consequential operations
npx @senscheck/governance-cli explain .senscheck/receipts.jsonl

audit pattern-matches file writes, process execution, database writes, HTTP mutations and deployment commands. It lists candidates; it does not prove anything is safe.

Wrap more things

Next

Read why fail closed, then what it does not do. Source and full docs: GitHub.