# Design your governance model

In this section you'll find guidelines for designing a domain hierarchy and a set of users and policies for your environment.

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It is not mandatory to design your governance model before you set up your Ripple Custody environment. However, we recommend that you have a good understanding of the target domain infrastructure, users, and policies that fit your requirements. At a minimum, you need a primary (or root) domain, with a suitable set of users and policies, such that the system can operate with workflows. This ensures that you can iterate on the model later, as needed.

For an overview of how governance works in Ripple Custody, see [Governance framework](/products/custody/v1.26/overview/governance).