# Agent Governance

Patterns and techniques for adding governance, safety, and trust controls to AI agent...

- Repository: https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot (40669 stars)
- Category: AI and agents
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-30
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add github/awesome-copilot --skill agent-governance -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add github/awesome-copilot --skill agent-governance -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add github/awesome-copilot --skill agent-governance -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add github/awesome-copilot --skill agent-governance -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Patterns and techniques for adding governance, safety, and trust controls to AI agent systems. Use this skill when: - Building AI agents that call external tools (APIs, databases, file systems) - Implementing policy-based access controls for agent tool usage - Adding semantic intent classification to detect dangerous prompts - Creating trust scoring systems for multi-agent workflows - Building audit trails for agent actions and decisions - Enforcing rate limits, content filters, or tool restrictions on agents - Working with any agent framework (PydanticAI, CrewAI, OpenAI Agents, LangChain, AutoGen)

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Agent Governance Patterns

Patterns for adding safety, trust, and policy enforcement to AI agent systems.

## Overview

Governance patterns ensure AI agents operate within defined boundaries, controlling which tools they can call, what content they can process, how much they can do, and maintaining accountability through audit trails.

```
User Request → Intent Classification → Policy Check → Tool Execution → Audit Log
                     ↓                      ↓               ↓
              Threat Detection         Allow/Deny      Trust Update
```

## When to Use

- **Agents with tool access**: Any agent that calls external tools (APIs, databases, shell commands)
- **Multi-agent systems**: Agents delegating to other agents need trust boundaries
- **Production deployments**: Compliance, audit, and safety requirements
- **Sensitive operations**: Financial transactions, data access, infrastructure management

---

## Pattern 1: Governance Policy

Define what an agent is allowed to do as a composable, serializable policy object.

```python
from dataclasses import dataclass, field
from enum import Enum
from typing import Optional
import re

class PolicyAction(Enum):
    ALLOW = "allow"
    DENY = "deny"
    REVIEW = "review"  # flag for human review

@dataclass
class GovernancePolicy:
    """Declarative policy controlling agent behavior."""
    name: str
    allowed_tools: list[str] = field(default_factory=list)       # allowlist
    blocked_tools: list[str] = field(default_factory=list)       # blocklist
    blocked_patterns: list[str] = field(default_factory=list)    # content filters
    max_calls_per_request: int = 100                             # rate limit
    require_human_approval: list[str] = field(default_factory=list)  # tools needing approval

The rest: https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot/blob/HEAD/skills/agent-governance/SKILL.md