> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.svrnos.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Governance Error Register

> A classification system for AI platform governance failures. 110 codes across seven architectural layers, modeled on HTTP status codes.

The **Governance Error Register (GER)** is an open taxonomy of AI platform governance failures. It exists so engineers, regulators, lawyers, journalists, and affected users can communicate about the same failures using the same words.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Find a code" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/ger/find">
    Start here. Describe what happened — symptom picker, case search, or filter by sector — and we'll narrow 110 codes to the 3–5 that match your case.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Browse all codes" icon="grid" href="/ger/browse">
    Flat tier-grouped index. For when you already know which code you want.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Read the paper" icon="file-lines" href="/ger/paper">
    The long-form research artifact. Methodology, related work, design principles, implications, citations.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cite GER" icon="quote-right" href="/ger/cite">
    Citation format, Zenodo DOI, license terms.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## The five tiers

The GER inherits the HTTP status-code mental model. Each tier names a structural class of governance behavior:

| Tier    | Class                                           | Codes | Example                            |
| ------- | ----------------------------------------------- | ----- | ---------------------------------- |
| **0xx** | Pre-Infrastructure — no governance layer        | 1     | GER-000 Pre-Governance             |
| **2xx** | Success states — governance handled correctly   | 4     | GER-200 Governance Handled         |
| **3xx** | Structural moves — deliberate routing decisions | 36    | GER-301 Risk Surface Retired       |
| **4xx** | Operator / platform errors — local failure      | 23    | GER-420 Phantom Enforcement        |
| **5xx** | Infrastructure failures — systemic              | 7     | GER-501 Escalation Not Implemented |

## What's new in v0.2

110 codes total (up from 27 in v0.1): 108 classification codes across L1-L7 plus two Dimension Markers (GER-800, GER-900). New entries include the multi-agent failure cluster (GER-332 through GER-349), the clinical-AI cluster surfaced by Dr. Hellen V. (GER-432, GER-433), the consent and biometric cluster (GER-324, GER-329, GER-346), and refinements to the v0.1 codes with sub-type taxonomies.

See [the changelog](/ger/changelog) for the full diff. See [Attributions](/attributions) for the contributors whose framings shaped v0.2.

## Two classes of codes

GER codes fall into two classes:

* **IANA-aligned codes** match assigned HTTP semantics (GER-404 mirrors HTTP 404; GER-408 Timeout; GER-409 Policy Conflict; GER-500 Infrastructure Failure; GER-501 Escalation Not Implemented).
* **Namespace-claim codes** occupy unassigned or extension-available HTTP slots where the failure mode has no direct HTTP analogue. This follows the convention established by Cloudflare (520–527), Twilio (1xxxx–9xxxx), and nginx (444, 494–499) in publishing domain-specific failure modes within the HTTP code space.

Both classes share the GER tier structure. The lookup tool surfaces both transparently.

## License

GER content — codes, definitions, distinct-from boundaries, attributions, glossary, tags — is published under **CC BY 4.0**.

Documented events are sourced from the [AI Incident Database](https://incidentdatabase.ai) (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). SVRNOS displays event titles and links out for full narratives — we do not redistribute the corpus.