---
id: govctl-org/govctl/discuss
version: "150b5041"
license: MIT
install: manual
updated: 2026-07-27
---

# discuss — discuss guides you through governance design conversations grounded in your repository's existing context. It helps identify constraints, compare design options, and produce durable artifacts like RFCs and ADRs that capture decisions and obligations without moving into implementation.

Publisher: govctl-org · Stars: 239 · Updated: 2026-07-27

Install (manual): `git clone https://github.com/govctl-org/govctl`

## SKILL.md

# Design Discussion

Understand `$ARGUMENTS`, relate it to existing governance, and produce only the
design artifacts justified by the discussion.

## Operational Baseline

### Discovery

Start from repository context rather than a blank design:

```bash
govctl status
govctl search <topic>
govctl rfc list
govctl adr list
```

Read relevant current artifacts with `show`; use `--history` only when prior
content matters. Use `govctl <resource> --help` for current authoring syntax. In
the govctl repository itself, invoke the development binary as
`cargo run --quiet --`.

### Hard Stops

- This is a design workflow: do not implement code or create Work Items.
- Do not perform lifecycle or destructive artifact mutations here, including
  acceptance/rejection, phase or version changes, deprecation, supersession,
  and deletion.
- Do not issue raw VCS commands; use the `commit` skill when drafts should be
  recorded.
- RFCs own obligations, ADRs own design rationale, and Work Items own execution.
  Do not use one artifact to compensate for missing content in another.
- Stop and ask when requirements conflict, a breaking consequence is
  unacknowledged, or the available evidence cannot resolve a material ambiguity.

## Decision Policy

### Classify The Outcome

| Question answered                            | Result                               |
| -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| What behavior or invariant must be true?     | RFC or RFC amendment                 |
| Why was one design chosen over alternatives? | ADR                                  |
| What does an existing artifact mean?         | Discussion or clarification          |
| What work should be executed now?            | Hand off to `gov`; no Work Item here |

Not every discussion needs an artifact. Prefer clarification in conversation
when no durable obligation or decision changes.

### Explore Before Concluding

Identify constraints from existing RFCs and ADRs, then compare plausible
options. Ask only questions whose answers materially change the design. For
high-risk or difficult trade-offs, use `decision-analysis`.

When drafting:

- use `rfc-writer` for normative Clause quality;
- use `adr-writer` and establish alternatives before the decision;
- use root `govctl clause` commands for every Clause operation;
- use `[[artifact-id]]` references in governed prose; and
- keep implementation details out unless they are an external contract.

Draft lifecycle operations belong to the later `spec` or `gov` handoff. A
behavior-changing amendment needs governed implementation; a clarification with
no implementation can use `spec`.

### Review And Validate

Run `govctl check` after substantive artifact edits. Ask the matching independent
reviewer agent to assess each RFC or ADR draft, and resolve critical findings
before presenting it as ready. Reviewer isolation is for semantic quality;
govctl remains responsible for structural validation.

## Completion Evidence

Conclude with:

- the problem and constraints understood;
- options considered and the current recommendation;
- draft artifacts created or changed, with status;
- unresolved questions and material risks;
- validation and reviewer results; and
- the correct handoff: continue discussion, `spec`, `gov`, or `commit`.

Leave artifacts in draft/proposed state until the user authorizes the owning
lifecycle transition.


[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/govctl-org/govctl/discuss) · [View on GitHub](https://github.com/govctl-org/govctl)