> **Note:** Our governance model is extremely new, and is not yet binding. Once merged into the `main` branch, we will go into a trial period where we will follow this governance model but may make changes based on feedback. All changes will go through our existing PR review process. After a period of 1-2 months, this note will be removed and this governance model will become binding.
This document outlines the governance model for Astro. This includes detailed descriptions of the contributor levels, nomination process, code review process, pull request merge process, and the consequences of Code of Conduct violations.
**Anything that supports the Astro community is a valuable contribution.** All types of contribution are meaningful, from code to documentation to blog posts. Anyone can become an Astro Contributor (yes, even you!). Our goal is to recognize all contributors to Astro regardless of skill, experience or background.
## Contributor Levels
We recognize different degrees of contribution as **levels**, and most levels can be reached regardless of coding skill or years of experience. The two most important things that we look for in contributors are:
- **Being here** - Everyone's time is valuable, and the fact that you're here and contributing to Astro is amazing! Thank you for being a part of this journey with us.
- **Being a positive member of our community** - Go above and beyond our Code of Conduct, and commit to healthy communication in pull requests, issue discussions, Discord conversations, and interactions outside of our community (ex: no Twitter bullies allowed :)
Each level unlocks new privileges and responsibilities on Discord and GitHub. Below is a summary of eachcontributor level:
Have you done something (big or small) to contribute to the health, success, or growth of Astro? Congratulations, you're officially recognized as a contributor to the project!
If you're interested in reaching the next level and becoming a Maintainer, you can begin to explore some of those responsibilities in the next section.
If you contributed to Astro outside of Discord, you may self-nominate by sending `!contribute` in any Discord channel, accompanied by a link or description of your contribution. You may also gain this role if you are active and helpful on Discord.
The Maintainer role is critical to the long-term health of Astro. Maintainers act as the first line of defense when it comes to new issues, pull requests and Discord activity. Maintainers are most likely the first people that a user will interact with on Discord or GitHub.
**A Maintainer is not required to write code!** Some Maintainers spend most of their time inside of Discord, maintaining a healthy community there.
**A Maintainer has moderation privileges!** All maintainers are trusted with the ability to help moderate our Discord and GitHub communities for things like spam. There is also a special (optional, opt-in) `@mods` role open to maintainers who are also interested in helping out when a community member reaches out for moderation help.
There is no strict minimum number of contributions needed to reach this level, as long as you can show **sustained** involvement over some amount of time (at least a couple of weeks).
To be nominated, a nominee is expected to already be performing some of the responsibilities of a Maintainer over the course of at least a couple of weeks.
In some rare cases, this role may be revoked by a project Steward. However, under normal circumstances this role is granted for as long as the contributor wishes to engage with the project.
**Core Maintainers** are community members who have contributed a significant amount of time and energy to the project through issues, bug fixes, implementing enhancements/features, and engagement with the community. A Core Maintainer is considered a trusted leader within the community.
A Core Maintainer has significant sway in software design decisions. For this reason, coding experience is critical for this role. Core Maintainer is the only level of contributor that does require a significant contribution history on GitHub.
Core maintainers are watchdogs over the code, ensuring code quality, correctness and security. A Core Maintainer helps to set the direction of the project and ensure a healthy future for Astro.
Some contributors will not reach this level, and that's okay! L2 Maintainers still have significant responsibility and privileges in our community.
#### Privileges
- All privileges of the [Maintainer role](#level-2---maintainer), plus...
-`@core` role on [Discord](https://astro.build/chat)
- Invitation to the private #core channel on Discord.
- Invitation to the `core` team on GitHub.
- Ability to merge all GitHub PRs.
- Ability to vote on all initiatives (see [Voting](#voting) below).
#### Responsibilities
- All of the responsibilities of L2, including...
- Ownership over specific parts of the project.
- Maintaining and improving overall architecture.
- Tracking and ensuring progress of open pull requests.
- Reviewing and merging larger, non-trivial PRs.
#### Nomination
To be nominated, a nominee is expected to already be performing some of the responsibilities of a Core Maintainer. This could include showing expertise over some larger section of the codebase, championing RFCs through ideation and implementation, reviewing non-trivial PRs and providing critical feedback, or some combination of those responsibilities listed above.
If a Core Maintainer steps away from the project for a significant amount of time, they may be removed as a Core Maintainer (L3 -> L2) until they choose to return.
In some rare cases, this role may be revoked by a project Steward. However, under normal circumstances this role is granted for as long as the contributor wishes to engage with the project.
#### Nomination Process
- You can be nominated by any existing Core Maintainer (L3 or above).
- Once nominated, there will be a vote by existing Core Maintainers (L3 and above).
- See [vote rules & requirements](#voting) for info on how the vote works.
Steward is an additional privilege bestowed to 1 (or more) Core Maintainers. The role of Steward is mainly an administrative one. Stewards control and maintain sensitive project assets, and act as tiebreakers in the event of disagreements.
In extremely rare cases, a Steward can act unilaterally when they believe it is in the project's best interest and can prove that the issue cannot be resolved through normal governance procedure. The steward must publicly state their reason for unilateral action before taking it.
The project Steward is currently: **@FredKSchott**
Staff is a special designation for employees of [The Astro Technology Company](https://astro.build/company) that lives outside of our Governance model. The staff role was designed to help those of us working full-time on Astro to work productively without "skipping the line" and circumventing our governance model entirely.
The staff role was designed to offer instant **visibility** and **trust**, but not instant **authority.**
#### Privileges
All privileges of the [Core Maintainer role](#level-3---core-mainainer), except...
- Instead of gaining Discord contributor roles (`@contributor`, `@maintainer`, `@core`) you will receive a special `@staff` role in Discord and GitHub that grants equivalent visibility and permissions as `@core`.
- No voting abilities for the first 3 months of staff membership. Then, the role grants equivalent voting permissions as `@core` (see [Voting](#voting) below).
- Not eligible for additional contributor levels while acting as `@staff`. You can retain all current contributor levels and can request a new nomination upon leaving `@staff` (See [Leaving Staff](#leaving-staff) below). This rule is designed to prevent a teamof contributors/maintainers that is overwhelmingly ex-staff members.
#### Responsibilities
Responsibilities will vary. Most often, a staff member will regularly meet the responsibilites of either the [Maintainer (L2)](#level-2---maintainer) or [Core Maintainer (L3)](#level-3---core-mainainer) role.
#### Nomination
There is no nomination process for this role. The project steward is responsible for granting and revoking the `@staff` role.
#### Leaving Staff
When someone leaves the Astro Technology Company, they lose staff privileges and return to their original membership level in our governance structure (whatever level they were at before joining staff).
If that person wishes to continue working on Astro after leaving, they may request a nomination to become an official L2 or L3 contributor. This nomination would follow the normal voting rules & procedure for that role (see [Voting](#voting) below).
Certain project decisions (like governance changes and membership nominations) require a vote. Below are the changes that require a vote, and the rules that govern that vote.
The project Steward may initiate a vote for any unlisted project decision. [General Rules](#general-rules) will apply, along with any addition rules provided at the steward's discretion. If this unlisted project decision is expected to be repeated in the future, voting rules should be agreed on and then added to this document.
This process kicks off once a valid nomination has been made. See ["Maintainer - Nomination Process"](#nomination-process) above for more details on nomination.
**Who can vote:** All Maintainers (L2 and above).
1. A vote thread should be created in Discord #maintainers channel (the private channel for all maintainers).
9.**If the vote fails:** the project Steward is responsible for informing the nominee with constructive, actionable feedback. (Note: this is not required if the nomination was made in the #core channel, or if the nominee was otherwise not made aware of their nomination).
#### Draft message to send to accepted maintainer, informing them of the decision:
```
Hey ${NAME}!
**I have some exciting news — you've been given the role of L2 Contributor (aka Maintainer/Moderator) in the Astro community!**
Some background: I nominated you for the role in the (private) #maintainers channel, and the consensus was overwhelmingly positive. Some quotes from the nomination thread that sum up the impact you've already had on the project so far:
- ...
- ...
- ...
Thank you for ${1 SENTENCE DESCRIPTION OF CONTRIBUTIONS}. Your impact has definitely been felt and we would be thrilled to have your help building a healthy future for Astro! There is no required time commitment: you can continue to contribute as often or as little as you'd like. This is mainly a chance to recognize your contributions and give you more privileges in Discord and GitHub.
Please let me know if you’re interested in accepting this invitation. If so, we’ll start getting your roles up to date. And if you have any questions, feel free to let me know.
*PS: As a reminder, our Governance document describes the following privileges and responsibilities for the **L2 - Maintainer** role: https://github.com/withastro/astro/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md*
This process kicks off once a valid nomination has been made. See ["Core Maintainer - Nomination Process"](#nomination-process) above for more details on nomination.
**Who can vote:** All Core Maintainers (L3 and above).
1. A vote thread should be created in Discord #core channel (the private channel for core maintainers).
2. A vote thread can be created by any core maintainer, or the Steward.
3. Once a vote thread is created, existing Core Maintainers can discuss the nomination in private.
4. The normal 3 day voting & discussion window begins with the thread creation.
5. Voting can be done in the thread (visible to other voters) or in a private DM to the project Steward.
6. Once the vote is complete, the thread is deleted.
7. The vote must receive an overwhelming majority (70%+) to pass.
8.**If the vote passes:** the nominee will be made a Core Maintainer and all privileges will be made available to them.
9.**If the vote fails:** the project Steward is responsible for informing the nominee with constructive, actionable feedback. (Note: this is not required if the nomination was made in the #core channel, or if the nominee was otherwise not made aware of their nomination).
I have some exciting news—you’ve been nominated and accepted as a core maintainer of Astro! The core maintainer group held a vote and overwhelmingly agree that you would be a great addition to the team. Congratulations! Thanks for all of your significant contributions to Astro to date and your continued dedication to this project and our community. We would be thrilled to have your help ensuring a healthy future for Astro!
Please let me know if you’re interested in accepting this invitation. If so, we’ll start getting your roles and permissions up to date.
As a reminder, our Governance document describes the following privileges and responsibilities for a **Core Maintainer**:
A vote is initiated once a pull request to the GOVERNANCE.md file is submitted by a Core Maintainer.
If the pull request submitter is not a Core Maintainer, the PR can be closed by any Maintainer without a vote. However, any Core Maintainer may request a vote on that PR, in which case a vote is initiated.
**Who can vote:** Core Maintainers (L3 and above). All Maintainers are encouraged to discuss and voice their opinion in the pull request discussion. Core Maintainers should take the opinions of others into consideration when voting.
1. The pull request discussion thread is used to discuss the governance change.
2. The normal 3 day voting & discussion window begins with either the PR creation or the removal of `WIP:` from the PR title if the PR was created as a draft.
3. Voting can be done in the pull request via a review of either **Approve (For)** or **Change Requested (Against)**.
4. The vote must receive a simple majority (50%+) to pass.
5.**If the vote passes:** the PR is merged and the changes take effect immediately.
6.**If the vote fails:** the PR is closed and no change occurs.
## Voting: RFC Proposals
Astro features are discussed using a model called [Consensus-seeking decision-making](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus-seeking_decision-making). This model attempts to achieve consensus on all significant changes to Astro, but has a fallback voting procedure in place if consensus appears unattainable.
**Who can vote:** All Maintainers (L2 and above).
1. Anyone can submit an RFC to suggest changes to Astro.
2. A trivial change can be discussed and approved entirely within the RFC GitHub issue, as long as there are no objections from Maintainers or Core Maintainers. This is not considered a formal vote.
3. A non-trivial, significant change should be discussed within the RFC GitHub issue and approved during an RFC meeting call.
4. During an RFC meeting, the moderator will attempt to achieve consensus on the RFC proposal.
5.**If consensus is reached:** the RFC is approved.
6.**If consensus is not reached:** Maintainers must make all reasonable attempts to resolve issues and reach consensusin GitHub or a follow-up RFC meeting. The process of reaching consensus can take time, and should not be rushed as long as all participants are making a reasonable effort to respond.
7.**If consensus still cannot be reached:** The project Steward may initiate the first fallback mechanism by limiting the vote to Core Maintainers.
8.**If consensus still cannot be reached:** The project Steward may initiate a final fallback vote of Core Maintainers, of which an overwhelming majority (80%+) is required to pass.
Inspired by [ESLint](https://eslint.org/docs/6.0.0/maintainer-guide/governance), [Rome](https://github.com/rome/tools/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md) and [Blitz](https://blitzjs.com/docs/maintainers).
