What is governance in Nimbus?

What is governance in Nimbus?

Business Summary: Governance gives leaders and operators control over how AI specialists work in your organization — who must approve outputs, what spend limits apply, and when external systems may be updated — so automation stays accountable instead of running unchecked.

Governance is the set of rules that determine how agents run in your organization: who must approve outputs, what NTU (Nimbus Token Units) limits apply, and when connector writes or exports require sign-off. It turns autonomous-looking AI work into accountable business process.

Without governance, AI tools optimize for speed — not compliance, auditability, or brand risk. Nimbus assumes sensitive work needs human review before publishing formal outputs, explicit approval before action connectors change external systems, spend visibility aligned to finance and department budgets, and a durable record of who approved what.

See Key concepts.

How this fits in Nimbus

Governance sits between your organization's policies and every governed agent run. Access tiers decide who can act at org scope. Workstream human-in-the-loop (HITL) presets and agent triggers decide when runs pause. Sign-off releases approved outcomes as decision commits.

flowchart TB
  Org[Organization access tiers] --> WS[Workstream HITL preset]
  WS --> SG[Agent governance triggers]
  SG --> CR[Confirm and run]
  CR --> Run[Agent run]
  Run --> CP{Checkpoint?}
  CP -->|Soft HITL| Chat[Clarify in chat]
  CP -->|Hard or Critical| SO[Sign-off]
  SO --> DC[Decision commit]

Layers of governance

Nimbus applies governance at multiple levels. Lower layers inherit from higher defaults unless you customize.

  1. Organization access tiers — Who can run Plan mode, open billing, or invite users
  2. Workstream HITL policy — Checkpoints for a specific goal (Standard, Strict, Custom)
  3. Agent governance triggers — Defaults on the agent profile (output review, write gates)
  4. Org policies — NTU budgets, connector export rules, governance teams (partial UI at Governance)
  5. Run plan confirmation — Confirm & run choices (deliverables, writes, data sources)

Governance vs decision commit

Governance sets the gates. A decision commit is the approved release after gates pass — to Outputs or a downstream system.

You may approve many checkpoints over a workstream lifecycle; each Critical approval may commit one decision.

See What is a commitment?.

Governance vs billing

Billing commitments are NTU pools on your subscription. Governance NTU budgets allocate visibility (chargeback) across business units — related but not identical.

See NTU budgets and chargeback and Billing and usage.

Ready to try it?

Assign roles and approvers: Org access tiers. Sign off on a run: Sign-off and approval flow.

Example scenario

Your marketing team scopes a workstream to draft a campaign performance report and push approved summary rows to the CRM. Governance applies at every step: the workstream uses a Strict HITL preset, the agent profile requires output review, and the CRM write needs Critical sign-off. Finance sees NTU usage attributed to the marketing business unit through governance budgets, while the org billing pool covers the actual spend.

What you'll see

What you'll see: HITL interrupt cards in chat, Pending approvals on Overview, governance tab on agent detail, and Governance page at Governance (demo team cards or empty state).

FAQs {#faqs}

Q: Is governance the same as security settings? A: Related but different. Governance controls agent behavior and approvals. Security settings (SSO, API keys) are planned under Settings → Security.

Q: Can I run agents without any governance? A: You can relax HITL toggles, but action connector writes should stay gated for production orgs.

Q: Where do I start configuring governance? A: When creating a workstream — governance step with HITL presets. See Checkpoints and approvals.

Q: Does the Company Wiki count as governance? A: Wiki content informs agents; governance controls actions and releases. Both support quality.

Q: What's planned for org-wide governance UI? A: Live team and policy data on Governance, expanded role-based access and team membership. See Teams and policies.

Q: Who owns governance policy in my organization? A: Typically workspace admins and super admins set org rules; workstream owners configure HITL for each goal.