These papers are prior disclosure. They are DOI-published, permanently citable, and frozen: they are cited for what they established when they were written and are not revised to match the current architecture, because normalizing them would destroy the priority record.
The PGC papers come first, then the field manual, then the earlier PGS papers in reading order.
© 2026 Bhash Ganti Contact: bachipeachy@gmail.com ORCID Profile: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3810-6520 Preface This paper describes an architecture for software execution within a fundamentally redesigned software architecture suited to an era in which AI and LLM-based coding assistants can automate software implementation at increasing scale. When implementation can be generated, modified, and regenerated automatically, conventional assumptions about where software behavior resides—and how that behavior remains governed—no longer suffice. This paper presents Protocol-Governed Computing (PGC), an architecture in which behavioral authority is moved out of implementation and into explicit, validated, executable protocols. It is the first of three companion papers: the second addresses governed transformation, and the third addresses realization of the architecture as a functioning normative platform. ...
© 2026 Bhash Ganti Contact: bachipeachy@gmail.com ORCID Profile: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3810-6520 Preface Software changes continuously, yet software engineering has traditionally treated construction, execution, and evolution as largely separate concerns. This paper presents an architecture for software evolution—how running software changes over time while remaining governed, verifiable, and executable—in an era in which AI and LLM-based coding assistants can automate software implementation at increasing scale. When implementation can be generated, modified, and regenerated automatically, the question of who governs the act of change becomes the architectural question. It is the second of three companion papers: the first addresses deterministic declarative execution [Ganti, 2026l], and the third addresses realization of the architecture as a functioning normative platform [Ganti, 2026m]. ...
© 2026 Bhash Ganti. All rights reserved. Bhash Ganti (aka Bachi) Contact: bachipeachy@gmail.com ORCID Profile: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3810-6520 Companion papers Part 1 — Protocol-Governed Computing: An Architecture for Deterministic Declarative Execution. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21879516 Part 2 — Protocol-Governed Computing: An Architecture for Closed-Loop Governed Transformation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21879948 Abstract Two companion papers establish the architecture of protocol-governed computing. One defines execution as declarative traversal of a compiled protocol; the other defines evolution as the governed transformation of one executable baseline into the next. Both state what must be true. Neither states what it takes to make it true, nor how one would know it had been achieved. ...
Author: Bhash Ganti (aka Bachi) © 2026 Bhash Ganti. All rights reserved. Released under the Apache-2.0 License. Audience: architects · compiler engineers · runtime engineers · governance engineers · AI coding agents under human supervision What this manual is A high-density restoration artifact. Its purpose is to rebuild the correct mental model of Protocol-Governed Computing in under thirty minutes — not to teach it, not to document code, not to walk a codebase. ...
(c) 2026 Bhash Ganti Contact: mailto:bachipeachy@gmail.com ORCID Profile: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3810-6520 Revision v1. Two changes, neither altering a claim of the paper. The preface was reframed so the paper reads as an entry point rather than as the fourth of a series, which is the role it now serves. A note on the change of name from Protocol-Governed Systems to Protocol-Governed Computing was added. The fifteen inversions and their development are unchanged from v0. ...
(c) 2026 Bhash Ganti Bhash Ganti Contact: bachipeachy@gmail.com Purpose: Define the conceptual model for Protocol-Governed Systems, validated through the PGS reference implementation. Audience: Protocol designers, compiler authors, runtime implementers, conformance engineers Abstract Protocol-Governed Systems (PGS) propose a computational architecture in which governance precedes execution. Instead of relying on runtime policies, conventions, or post-hoc validation, PGS defines admissible behavior through governed protocol artifacts that are compiled into deterministic execution structures before runtime begins. ...
© 2026 Bhash Ganti. All rights reserved. Bhash Ganti (aka Bachi) Contact: bachipeachy@gmail.com Abstract The rapid acceleration of AI-assisted software generation exposes a fundamental limitation in conventional software architecture: behavior is implicitly defined by implementation, while governance operates reactively and at human speed. This mismatch creates a structural gap in which systems can exhibit unauthorized, non-deterministic, and unauditable behavior. Existing approaches — static analysis, runtime guardrails, policy engines — attempt to constrain behavior after code is produced, but cannot guarantee compliance when implementation evolves faster than governance capacity. ...
(c) 2026 Bhash Ganti Contact: mailto:bachipeachy@gmail.com ORCID Profile: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3810-6520 Revision v1. Two changes, neither altering a claim of the paper. A forward reference to “Paper 6 in this series” was repointed: the authoring pipeline it promised is now developed in An Architecture for Closed-Loop Governed Transformation, which supersedes the earlier treatment of governed change. A note on the change of name from Protocol-Governed Systems to Protocol-Governed Computing was added. The compiler model itself is unchanged from v0. ...
(c) 2026 Bhash Ganti Contact: mailto:bachipeachy@gmail.com ORCID Profile: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3810-6520 Preface This paper is part of the PGS technical paper series. The paper Protocol-Governed Systems: Conceptual Model established the architectural foundations: constitutional governance, the four-layer stack, and the separation of governance from execution. The paper Protocol-Governed Systems: Compiler Conceptual Model described how the compiler converts protocol declarations into a governed execution boundary called the Protocol Snapshot. Together, those two papers establish that behavior is fully determined before execution begins. This paper focuses on the component that consumes that boundary: the PGS runtime. ...
Historic working paper. An early, DOI-published draft preserved for historical reference. Its implementation terminology predates the current PGS compiler and runtime architecture and is superseded by the current Papers. Figures survive only in the canonical PDF below. Download PDF (canonical, with figures) Categories: Software Engineering (cs.SE), Programming Languages (cs.PL), Software Architecture Keywords: software architecture, declarative systems, deterministic execution, protocol governance, AI-generated code, auditability, separation of concerns, constitutional primitives, architectural layers, behavioral concerns ...