Governance Inheritance

Hierarchical policy inheritance system for OpenClaw agents. Enables policies to be defined at organization, team, project, and session levels with automatic inheritance, override rules, and conflict resolution. Use when setting up governance policies that need to cascade across multiple sessions, when defining policy hierarchies, or when resolving policy conflicts between parent and child contexts. Required tools - exec, read, write. Environment variables - GOVERNANCE_ROOT (default ~/.openclaw/governance).

This skill provides a hierarchical policy inheritance system that allows policies to be defined at multiple levels and automatically inherited by child contexts.

Policy Hierarchy Levels

Policies cascade from broad to specific:

Organization (broadest)
    ↓
Team
    ↓
Project
    ↓
Session (most specific)

Inheritance Rules

1. Child overrides parent: More specific policies override broader ones
2. Additive by default: Policies merge unless explicitly overridden
3. Explicit deny wins: A deny at any level blocks the action
4. Require explicit allow: Actions without an explicit allow are blocked in strict mode

Policy Structure

Each level contains a policies.yaml file:

# policies.yaml
version: "1.0"
level: organization  # organization | team | project | session
parent: null         # path to parent policy (null for root)

# Policy blocks
policies:
  http:
    - pattern: "*.internal.company.com"
      action: allow
      scope: ["GET", "POST"]
    - pattern: "*"
      action: deny
      reason: "External HTTP requires approval"
  
  shell:
    - command: "git *"
      action: allow
    - command: "rm -rf /*"
      action: deny
      reason: "Destructive command blocked"
    - command: "*"
      action: require_approval

  file:
    read:
      - path: "~/workspace/*"
        action: allow
      - path: "/etc/*"
        action: deny
    write:
      - path: "~/workspace/*"
        action: allow
      - path: "*"
        action: require_approval

# Inheritance configuration
inheritance:
  mode: merge          # merge | override | isolate
  exceptions:          # Policies that don't inherit
    - shell.sudo
  extensions:          # Child can extend these
    - http.allowlist

Quick Start

1. Initialize Organization Policies

python scripts/init_governance.py --level organization --path ~/.openclaw/governance

2. Create Team-Level Override

python scripts/init_governance.py --level team --name engineering --parent ~/.openclaw/governance/organization

3. Evaluate Policy for Action

const result = await context.tools.governanceInheritance.evaluate({
  action: "http",
  details: { method: "GET", url: "https://api.example.com/data" },
  context: {
    sessionId: "sess_123",
    project: "my-project",
    team: "engineering"
  }
});

// result: { allowed: true } | { allowed: false, reason: "...", level: "organization" }

Policy Resolution

When evaluating an action, the system:

1. Collects all applicable policies from root to leaf
2. Merges according to inheritance rules
3. Evaluates against the most specific matching rule
4. Returns decision with provenance (which level decided)

Conflict Resolution

Parent	Child	Result
allow	allow	allow
allow	deny	deny (child wins)
allow	require_approval	require_approval
deny	allow	deny (deny always wins)
deny	deny	deny

Session Context Integration

Policies automatically load based on session context:

# Session inherits from project → team → organization
session_context:
  organization: "acme-corp"
  team: "engineering"
  project: "api-gateway"
  session: "sess_abc123"

# Policy resolution path:
# ~/.openclaw/governance/organizations/acme-corp/policies.yaml
# ~/.openclaw/governance/teams/engineering/policies.yaml
# ~/.openclaw/governance/projects/api-gateway/policies.yaml
# ~/.openclaw/governance/sessions/sess_abc123/policies.yaml

Available Tools

evaluate

Evaluates an action against the inherited policy chain.

Parameters:

• action (string): Action type (http, shell, file, browser)
• details (object): Action-specific details
• context (object): Session context for policy resolution

Returns:

{
  allowed: boolean,
  reason?: string,
  level: string,        // Which policy level made the decision
  policy?: string,      // Specific policy that matched
  requiresApproval?: boolean
}

initPolicyLevel

Initializes a new policy level.

Parameters:

• level (string): organization, team, project, or session
• name (string): Identifier for this level
• parent (string, optional): Path to parent policy
• path (string): Where to create the policy

validatePolicyChain

Validates a policy chain for conflicts or errors.

Parameters:

• context (object): Session context to validate

Returns:

{
  valid: boolean,
  errors: string[],
  warnings: string[]
}

Configuration

Set the governance root in your environment:

export GOVERNANCE_ROOT="~/.openclaw/governance"

Or in openclaw.json:

{
  "skills": {
    "governance-inheritance": {
      "env": {
        "GOVERNANCE_ROOT": "~/.openclaw/governance"
      }
    }
  }
}

Policy Examples

Organization Level (Restrictive Base)

level: organization
policies:
  http:
    - pattern: "*.company.internal"
      action: allow
    - pattern: "*"
      action: require_approval
  shell:
    - command: "*"
      action: require_approval

Team Level (Engineering - More Permissive)

level: team
parent: ../organization
inheritance:
  mode: merge
policies:
  http:
    - pattern: "*.github.com"
      action: allow
    - pattern: "*.npmjs.com"
      action: allow
  shell:
    - command: "git *"
      action: allow
    - command: "npm *"
      action: allow
    - command: "docker *"
      action: allow

Project Level (Specific Overrides)

level: project
parent: ../engineering
inheritance:
  mode: merge
policies:
  http:
    - pattern: "api.stripe.com"
      action: allow  # This project uses Stripe
  file:
    write:
      - path: "./dist/*"
        action: allow

Integration with GovernClaw

This skill works alongside governclaw-middleware:

// governclaw-middleware calls governance-inheritance for policy resolution
const policyResult = await context.tools.governanceInheritance.evaluate({
  action: "http",
  details: { method, url, headers },
  context: sessionContext
});

if (!policyResult.allowed) {
  return { blocked: true, reason: policyResult.reason };
}

Best Practices

1. Start restrictive at organization level - Require approval for everything
2. Grant specific permissions at lower levels - Teams/projects opt into what they need
3. Document exceptions - Use reason field to explain why policies exist
4. Regular audits - Run validatePolicyChain to catch conflicts
5. Version your policies - Use the version field to track changes

Error Handling

Always check for policy evaluation errors:

const result = await context.tools.governanceInheritance.evaluate({...});

if (result.error) {
  // Policy chain misconfiguration
  console.error("Policy error:", result.error);
  return { error: "Governance misconfigured" };
}

if (!result.allowed) {
  // Policy blocked the action
  console.log("Blocked by", result.level, "policy:", result.reason);
}

See Also

• references/policy-schema.md - Complete policy YAML schema
• references/inheritance-algorithm.md - Detailed inheritance logic
• scripts/init_governance.py - Initialize policy levels
• scripts/validate_chain.py - Validate policy chains