Dashboard Governance Skill

Current candidate version: 0.4.1. Local files and validators do not prove publication; publication requires the tag and GitHub Release steps in docs/PUBLISHING.md.

dashboard-governance is a portable Codex skill for maintaining a project Dashboard across long-running human-AI work. It helps an AI coding agent update Big Ideas, Sessions, Decisions, TSP fields, status, blockers, durable outputs, scope-aware closeout, and emergent next steps without treating the Dashboard as canonical project truth.

The skill is useful when a repository needs an execution-state layer that survives model changes, session changes, and handoff between humans and AI agents. The default template stays lightweight; v0.2.0 also adds an optional advanced governance layer for projects that need stage plans, risks, exceptions, quality metrics, automation, external artifact indexes, agent logs, or validation/closure lanes.

What It Is For

Use this skill when you want an AI agent to:

• keep project execution state visible across sessions
• separate stable truth from active task tracking
• maintain a Dashboard with Big Ideas, Sessions, and Decisions
• preserve Topic, Scope, and Purpose for large tracks and bounded tasks
• update task state after meaningful progress
• record unresolved choices separately from implementation tasks
• close narrowed work honestly before marking rows done
• identify concrete P0/P1 next-session candidates after work finishes
• preserve P2/P3 candidate memory only when it is specific and costly to rediscover
• use optional advanced governance files for non-trivial governed batches
• keep todo rows as visible options, not execution promises

It is not a replacement for an architecture document, issue tracker, design review, or human priority decision. It is a lightweight coordination surface for agentic work.

Core Concepts

Big Ideas

Big Ideas are long-lived semantic tracks. They describe important directions, themes, or implementation streams that may span many work sessions. A Big Idea should not close just because one related session finishes.

Sessions

Sessions are bounded execution or exploration units. They are small enough to be selected, completed, reviewed, and handed off. Sessions carry priority, status, dependencies, deliverables, exit criteria, next steps, and notes.

Decisions

Decisions capture choices that could block or distort multiple sessions if left implicit. Keeping them separate from Sessions prevents unresolved strategy from becoming hidden task churn.

TSP