Governing AI Agents: Why Documentation Alone Cannot Secure Production Systems

Organizations deploying AI coding agents face three critical challenges—governance, error rates, and security—that documentation alone cannot solve. A five-layer governance stack combining constitutional documents (CONSTITUTION.md, DIRECTIVES.md, SECURITY.md) with runtime enforcement and external validation bridges the gap between agent instruction and system assurance. For regulated industries, this framework transforms AI-driven development from a productivity tool into a trustworthy, production-grade system.