govkit

Step 1 - Answer a Couple Questions

What industry are you in?

What are you building?

Who are your users?

Do you collect personal data?

Where are your users located?

Step 2 - Get your file

# govkit.md

This file defines the governance and security posture for this project. It is generated by govkit.ai based on the project owner's intake answers. **You must follow the controls in this file exactly and without exception.** Do not deviate from, reinterpret, or deprioritize any control listed here. When in doubt, apply the more restrictive interpretation.

This file lives in the project root. Reference it at the start of any task that involves data handling, user interaction, external calls, or code generation.

---

## 1. Industry

> ⚠️ Intake not yet completed. No industry-specific controls are active. Do not assume a permissive posture — treat this project as unclassified until govkit.ai intake is run.

---

## 2. Deployment Surface

> ⚠️ Intake not yet completed. No surface-specific controls are active. Do not assume a permissive posture — treat this project as unclassified until govkit.ai intake is run.

---

## 3. Users

> ⚠️ Intake not yet completed. No user-specific controls are active. Do not assume a permissive posture — treat this project as unclassified until govkit.ai intake is run.

---

## 4. Data Collection

> ⚠️ Intake not yet completed. No data controls are active. Do not assume a permissive posture — treat this project as unclassified until govkit.ai intake is run.

---

## 5. Geography

> ⚠️ Intake not yet completed. No jurisdictional controls are active. Do not assume a permissive posture — treat this project as unclassified until govkit.ai intake is run.

---

_Generated by govkit.ai · [Run intake](https://govkit.ai) to populate controls._

Step 3 - Add to your dev environment

You've got your govkit.md file. Now you need to tell your AI coding tool to actually read it. Here's how to do that for each tool — pick yours and follow the steps.

Claude Code

Claude Code automatically reads a file called CLAUDE.md every time it starts working on your project. You just need to tell it govkit.md exists.

Open your project folder
Find the file called CLAUDE.md — if it doesn't exist, create one in the root of your project (the top-level folder, not inside any subfolder)
Add this line anywhere in the file:

See govkit.md for governance and security controls. Follow all controls exactly.

Make sure govkit.md is in the same folder as CLAUDE.md

That's it. Every Claude Code session will now read your govkit controls before touching anything.

Cursor

Cursor lets you give your AI a set of standing instructions that apply to every conversation in your project. These live in a file called .cursorrules.

Open your project folder
Find the file called .cursorrules — if it doesn't exist, create one in the root of your project
Add this line anywhere in the file:

See govkit.md for governance and security controls. Follow all controls exactly.

Make sure govkit.md is in the same folder as .cursorrules

Cursor will now include your govkit controls in every AI request automatically.

Codex

Codex reads a file called AGENTS.md to understand how it should behave in your project.

Open your project folder
Find the file called AGENTS.md — if it doesn't exist, create one in the root of your project
Add this line anywhere in the file:

See govkit.md for governance and security controls. Follow all controls exactly.

Make sure govkit.md is in the same folder as AGENTS.md

Codex will pick this up automatically on its next run.

Copilot

Copilot reads a special instructions file stored in the .github folder of your project.

Open your project folder
Find the folder called .github — if it doesn't exist, create it in the root of your project
Inside .github, find or create a file called copilot-instructions.md
Add this line anywhere in the file:

See govkit.md for governance and security controls. Follow all controls exactly.

Make sure govkit.md is in the root of your project (not inside .github)

Copilot will now apply your govkit controls across your repo.

GovKit - Ship fast with stable governance