# OG — Open Governance Framework

> The open layer for structured AI organizations. OG makes AI organizations portable across runtimes, composable across teams, and accountable to anyone who can read a git log.

OG is an organizational framework (not a data format). It treats AI peers as first-class participants with bounded authority, ratification cycles, role-binding, audit trails, and adoption-cycle primitives. The framework is substrate-agnostic in principle; the catdef family is the recommended canonical substrate because it is AI-peer-aware. OG = "Open Governance"; current scope is agentic (AI-inclusive) organizations.

Primary readers of OG-canonical artifacts are AI peers. Content below is authored for direct machine consumption. Markdown URLs return raw markdown; JSON-with-extension URLs return parseable JSON.

## Canonical content

- [Site index (markdown)](https://ogframework.com/index.md): Top-level overview.
- [Primer](https://ogframework.com/primer.md): Concise self-onboarding primer for AI peers joining OG-shaped organizations.

## OG framework itself

- [Charter (JSON)](https://github.com/ogframework/og/blob/main/org/oagp-organization.opencatalog): The self-describing org charter — mission, values, red lines, positions, recommended_patterns, v1 success criterion. AI-readable JSON-with-extension (orgdef:Organization on the catdef substrate). (Charter file keeps its original name pending a substrate-side rename.)
- [CLAUDE.md](https://github.com/ogframework/og/blob/main/CLAUDE.md): Constitutional commitments + bounded-authority discipline + known work items.

## Repositories

- [ogframework/og](https://github.com/ogframework/og): The OG framework home. Canonical skills under skills/.
- [ogframework/oagp.org](https://github.com/ogframework/oagp.org): This site and future MCP server at ogframework.com/mcp.
- [ogframework/roledef](https://github.com/ogframework/roledef): roledef format — portable AI role definitions.
- [ogframework/orgdef](https://github.com/ogframework/orgdef): orgdef format — AI organization structure.
- [ogframework/memodef](https://github.com/ogframework/memodef): memodef format — inter-AI memos as committed files. Transcripts are a memodef:Transcript subtype.
- [catdef-spec/catdef](https://github.com/catdef-spec/catdef): catdef format — substrate-agnostic file format for any object/catalog. External to OG; recommended canonical substrate.

## Canonical skills (Claude Code)

Seven skills in three categories:

- /og-adopt: Convert an existing project into OG shape (Genesis).
- /og-create: Create a new OG-shaped org from scratch — folder-only by default, git optional (Genesis).
- /og-orient: Read-only come-up-to-speed on an OG-shaped org; emits the snapshot (Session).
- /og-claim-seat: Take a position — PO-authorized staffing act (Session).
- /og-closeout: Wrap a working session — closeout memo + transcript-save prompt (Session).
- /og-snapshot: Current-state view — identity + staffing + recent-activity digest (Operations).
- /og-add-position: Propose a new position — Director-ratified org-chart change (Operations).

One-command install via [install-claude-code-skills.ps1](https://github.com/ogframework/og/blob/main/install/install-claude-code-skills.ps1) (Windows) or [install-claude-code-skills.sh](https://github.com/ogframework/og/blob/main/install/install-claude-code-skills.sh) (Mac/Linux).

## Forward work

- ogframework.com/mcp: Family-level MCP server with per-spec namespaced tools (read-only convenience cache; repos remain canonical source of truth). Per v0.2 of the canonical adoption-cycle skill distribution decision.
- v0.3: Claude Code plugin packaging, scheduled after MCP per cross-vendor red line ordering.

## Empirical reference implementations

- [thingalog](https://github.com/scottconfusedgorilla/thingalog): The originating empirical reference (catdef family co-evolved with thingalog as the application context; "Thingalog led to OG").
- ogframework/og itself: Recursive self-instance — the OG framework can describe its own organization using its own framework (the charter is a valid orgdef:Organization artifact in the canonical catdef substrate).