A governance action is an on-chain proposal in Cardano’s governance system. Anyone can submit one by locking a deposit; the action then enters a voting window measured in epochs, during which DReps, SPOs, and the Constitutional Committee cast their votes. Which of the three bodies vote, and what share of their voting power must approve, depends on the action’s type.
CIP-1694 defines seven types: motion of no confidence, update the constitutional committee, new constitution or guardrails script, hard fork initiation, protocol parameter change, treasury withdrawal, and info action.
An action that reaches its thresholds is ratified and then enacted by the ledger; one that does not is dropped when its window expires. Each action’s current status and full voting record is tracked in the governance actions feed, where every action also has its own discussion thread.