Veritas
Define your project's rules once. Veritas tells agents which rules apply, runs the relevant checks, and shows what still needs attention.
Use your existing tests, linters and verification commands. Veritas connects them to repository policies and gives developers and agents guidance before they edit. A readiness report shows the evidence for those policies; your team still decides whether to merge.
Quickstart
Requires Node.js 22 or newer and a Git repository. Install with your project's package manager; for npm:
npm install -D @kontourai/veritas
npx --no @kontourai/veritas init --evidence-check "npm test"
Replace npm test with an existing command that actually checks your project. Review the generated configuration before running it: readiness executes configured commands. If initialization cannot find a project check, its fallback only verifies that Node can run. That is incomplete project setup, even when the smoke check passes.
Then use two commands during development:
# Before editing: see applicable policies, guidance and selected checks.
npx --no @kontourai/veritas plan src/example.ts
# After editing: execute checks and inspect unmet requirements.
npx --no @kontourai/veritas readiness --working-tree
plan does not run checks. readiness does. Start with the setup guide for configuration review and approval, or the walkthrough for a concrete policy catch.
What You Get
| File | Question it answers |
|---|---|
.veritas/repo-standards/default.repo-standards.json |
What rules apply, and what should an agent do? |
.veritas/repo-map.json |
Where do those rules apply, and which checks provide evidence? |
.veritas/authority/default.authority-settings.json |
What approval-reference and review preferences apply? |
A policy can give advice (Guide) or require passing evidence (Require). Begin with advice for rules you are still tuning. Keep hard requirements small and prove that their checks catch the intended problem.
Veritas can require a companion test change, check a forbidden pattern, or connect a policy to an existing test or linter command. Its optional code hygiene pack includes detectors for unexplained suppressions and uncontrolled clocks in unit tests. A changed test file alone does not prove that a feature works.
Choose your next step
- Set up an existing repository and connect its checks.
- See a policy catch and its limits.
- Give your agent guidance through supported hooks or explicit commands.
- Run in CI and inspect readiness evidence.
- Protect policy changes with explicit approval settings.
- Read the concepts when you need more terminology.
- Browse the published documentation, documentation index, CLI reference, or schemas.
Optional capabilities
Work-area boundaries, policy approval, external-tool evidence, feedback and recommendations support larger repositories. Add them when they solve a concrete problem; they are not prerequisites for understanding the basic loop.
The Governance Kit distributes setup workflows, skills and hooks through Flow Agents. The standalone CLI works without that kit. Developers embedding evaluation can use @kontourai/veritas/engine; see architecture.
Veritas uses Surface internally for claims and evidence. Normal users do not need to configure Surface. Product boundaries explain optional integrations with other Kontour tools.
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md. Veritas is licensed under Apache-2.0.