---
title: "Memory and governance modes | CommitCycle"
description: "Two ways to run CommitCycle — memory, where every edit needs an active task, and governance, which adds zones, owners and approvals — and how to choose."
url: https://commitcycle.com/docs/concepts/modes/
language: en
---

# Memory and governance modes

> Two ways to run CommitCycle — memory, where every edit needs an active task, and governance, which adds zones, owners and approvals — and how to choose.

A repository runs CommitCycle in one of two modes (CC-1149). The choice belongs to a person on the board, and it is set under **Settings → Access defaults**, or with `cycle mode` from a signed-in shell. `cycle init` starts a repository in memory mode unless you pass `--mode governance` (CC-1176).

## Memory (the default for a repository with no zones)

Everything that makes the work legible, and one rule at the edit.

- Every request becomes a task with a goal, non-goals and acceptance criteria, scoped before work starts.
- The task moves through the five states, with a note at every transition.
- The close keeps the audit record on the board, with the files the work touched.
- **The rule:** an edit needs an active task. Without one, the hook denies the write and says a task has to be started first; with one, it raises no objection.
- Zones, approvals and Bash containment are not judged, even if the repository has a zone map.

## Governance

Everything in memory, plus least privilege.

- Zones with owners, declared in `.zones/zones.yml` and mirrored to the board.
- A task declares the zones it will touch; a high-risk zone needs its owner’s approval before work starts.
- The grant opens only the declared zones, for the declared branch, for a limited time.
- Bash commands that write outside the grant are reverted after they run.

Choose it where a write in the wrong place costs more than a stopped session: a schema, a payment path, the guard itself.

## How the mode is decided and applied

- **Unchosen**, a repository whose zone map is on the board is in governance, and one without is in memory. No repository changed behaviour when modes were introduced.
- **A person chooses** it in Settings or with `cycle mode memory` / `cycle mode governance` from a signed-in shell. A machine token can read it and never change it: an agent choosing to switch its own zones off would defeat the point.
- **It travels inside the grant.** When a task starts in memory mode, the board issues its grant with `repo_mode: memory`, covered by the board’s signature. The hook relaxes zones only for an active, signed grant that says so. A file an agent could edit is not involved, so the mode cannot be forged, and a change applies from the next task started.
- **The diff check at close stays in both modes.** In memory mode it reports what the work touched; it does not refuse a close for touching an undeclared zone.

## Related

- [Zones](https://commitcycle.com/docs/concepts/zones/) and [grants](https://commitcycle.com/docs/concepts/grants/), which only apply in governance.
- [The board](https://commitcycle.com/docs/concepts/the-board/) and [the task spec](https://commitcycle.com/docs/concepts/task-spec/), which apply in both.