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Governed Todo App

governed-todo-app is the minimal governed app walkthrough. It is the simplest example that still exercises the full PM -> Dev -> QA lifecycle with approvals and orchestrator-owned state.

What It Is

  • Category: minimal governed application example
  • Product shape: scaffolded governed repo and tutorial path
  • Source: examples/governed-todo-app

Roles And Workflow

  • Roles: pm, dev, qa, eng_director
  • Phases: planning -> implementation -> qa
  • Distinctive trait: smallest end-to-end governed lifecycle example in the repo

How AgentXchain Governed The Build

This example is intentionally close to the default governed model:

  • manual PM turn creates the planning artifacts
  • local CLI dev turn performs authoritative implementation
  • API-proxy QA turn reviews the result
  • human approvals govern the planning gate and final ship gate

If you want to understand the baseline governed lifecycle before moving to custom teams or proof harnesses, start here.

Run It

cd examples/governed-todo-app
git init && git add -A && git commit -m "initial scaffold"
agentxchain status
agentxchain step
agentxchain approve-transition
agentxchain step
agentxchain step --role qa
agentxchain approve-completion

Unattended Auto-Run Proof

This example also ships with run-auto.mjs — a harness that proves the governed-todo-app can complete end-to-end via agentxchain run --auto-approve without any human interaction.

The harness transforms the config for unattended execution:

  • Replaces all manual and local_cli adapters with api_proxy (Haiku for cost control)
  • Removes file-based gate requirements (api_proxy roles cannot write to disk)
  • Preserves the 4-role structure and 3-phase workflow
  • Runs continuously in GitHub Actions via .github/workflows/governed-todo-app-proof.yml on a nightly schedule and manual workflow_dispatch reruns
# Requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
node examples/governed-todo-app/run-auto.mjs

# JSON output for CI pipelines
node examples/governed-todo-app/run-auto.mjs --json

Recorded Case Study — 2026-04-13

FieldValue
Commandnode examples/governed-todo-app/run-auto.mjs --json
CLI Version2.83.0
Run IDrun_b132619cd060b77b
Rolespm → dev → qa (3 distinct roles)
Turns3 accepted
Cost$0.021 total
Decision Ledger9 entries
ReportsGovernance export + report generated

This is the first product example (not a proof-only scaffold) to complete unattended governed execution via the shipped CLI surface.

Key Takeaways

  • This is the cleanest starting point for understanding the governed workflow.
  • It demonstrates the default multi-role lifecycle without extra product complexity.
  • The example makes the orchestrator boundary concrete: agents do work, but AgentXchain advances state.
  • The run-auto.mjs harness proves the governance flow works unattended with real API dispatch.