ChooChoo is composed of three main layers that work together to enforce governance without slowing down development. For the motivations behind this design, see Why ChooChoo?.

1. The Engine (CLI & Validation)

The Engine is the developer-facing interface. It is a CLI tool (@choochoo-works/cli) that runs on developer machines and in CI/CD pipelines.

• Responsibilities:
  • Initialize and manage project configuration.
  • Validate artifacts (Products, Contracts, Workflows) against schemas.
  • Enforce quality rules and policy checks locally.
  • Register agents and validate their boundaries.

2. The Map (Context Graph)

The Map is the accumulated storage of Decision Traces. It is not just a log of events, but a graph database that links entities across time. The Lineage Graph visualizes these connections.

• Entities:
  • Artifacts: Data Products, Contracts, Workflows.
  • Actors: Human developers, AI Agents, CI Systems.
  • Policies: Approval rules, compliance frameworks.
• Relationships:
  • produces, consumes, depends-on, validates, approved-by.

3. The Station (Governance UI)

The Station is the control plane for GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) teams and leadership.

• Capabilities:
  • Visualize the Context Graph and lineage.
  • Define global Approval Policies.
  • View Risk Heatmaps and Compliance Reports.
  • Audit Agent activity and decision history.
  • Manage access control (RBAC) and SSO.

Architecture Diagram

Next Steps