Governance Lifecycle

●Draft

Status: Draft
Version: 0.1.0
Last Updated: 2026-05-16
Owner: Governance Nucleus

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Purpose

This document defines the expected lifecycle for Axodus governance work.

Lifecycle

1. Idea or request
2. Intake
3. Classification
4. Context enrichment
5. ACS-assisted advisory analysis
6. Human review
7. Governance routing
8. Public discussion when required
9. Vote or approval
10. Execution preparation
11. Execution
12. Execution receipt
13. Accountability publication
14. Archive

Execution Records

Records should include proposal text, rationale, risk notes, vote outcome, execution owner, execution receipt, and follow-up obligations.

Risk-Based Routing

• Low risk: documentation updates, non-sensitive copy changes, or minor process clarifications. Review may remain lightweight.
• Medium risk: service runtime changes, product policy changes, or non-treasury integrations. Review should include the responsible nucleus and governance visibility when policy-related.
• High risk: treasury actions, smart contract changes, custom governance plugins, token reward policy, or trading strategy access policy. Review should include ACS analysis, human review, governance review, risk disclosure, execution receipt, and accountability output when material.
• Critical risk: exploit response, treasury emergency, or constitutional exception. Review should include emergency or high-authority review, security review, treasury or Boardroom review, public post-action reporting, and rollback or containment planning.

Risk Considerations

Governance should not rush treasury movement, contract deployment, plugin activation, or security-sensitive integrations without appropriate review.

Decision Handoffs

A governed lifecycle separates proposal, review, approval, execution, and observation:

1. A proponent states the requested outcome, scope, dependencies, and risks.
2. Reviewers test constitutional fit, evidence, boundaries, and affected nuclei.
3. The authority for that action approves, rejects, conditions, or defers it.
4. An authorized executor acts only within the approved scope.
5. Observers and Accountability compare the result with the decision.
6. Material differences trigger suspension, correction, appeal, or reversal according to the applicable authority.

No stage can infer the next. A recommendation is not approval, approval is not execution, and an execution artifact is not operational success without a matching receipt.