[PATCH] doc: document the current project governance

[PATCH] doc: document the current project governance

[Antonin Delpeuch via GitGitGadget]

From: Antonin Delpeuch <antonin@delpeuch.eu>

The social structures and conventions in place in the project are
not necessarily obvious to its members, especially to newcomers.
Misunderstandings about the expectations of the community concerning
certain processes can potentially lead to conflicts or friction.
The ways in which the Git project functions could potentially be
improved too, but identifying areas where improvement is needed
is more difficult if the existing conventions haven't been spelt out
explicitly.

Document the existing project governance in a new page of the
technical documentation. Describe our current ways of working
without claiming to set those in stone as policies.

Signed-off-by: Antonin Delpeuch <antonin@delpeuch.eu>
---
    doc: document the current project governance
    
    Hi all,
    
    Following our earlier discussion 1
    [https://lore.kernel.org/git/1aee1829-d7ad-47e2-b7d1-1a946bd59991@delpeuch.eu/],
    I have attempted to describe the existing governance of the project and
    am submitting this as a patch to get your feedback on this draft.
    
    There are a number of aspects that I couldn't figure out myself, so I
    have left some questions in the document, formatted as "admonitions". Of
    course, the patch isn't mean to be merged as long as those questions are
    present. I'm hoping that I can replace those by informed answers after
    your reviews. I expect that the answers to many of those will be along
    the lines of "there is no agreed-on process for this, we would make one
    up if the issue arises", which is perfectly fine. In that case I think
    it still makes sense to describe that as such for now (which might
    prompt the project to prepare for those situations better).
    
    As suggested by Junio, the purpose of this document isn't to be a policy
    but to describe the status quo. So if some processes described here feel
    accurate but inadequate, I suggest that the discussion about what they
    should ideally be happens in separate threads, similar to the one about
    the voting process 2
    [https://lore.kernel.org/git/summit-2026.94e33e9ddf234334.06@ttaylorr.com/T/#m7b0180985c2ea6325078119406d09a4e4f0b9481].
    
    Thanks,
    
    Antonin

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-git-2479%2Fwetneb%2Fgov_doc-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-git-2479/wetneb/gov_doc-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/git/git/pull/2479

 Documentation/Governance.adoc | 85 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 Documentation/Makefile        |  1 +
 2 files changed, 86 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/Governance.adoc

diff --git a/Documentation/Governance.adoc b/Documentation/Governance.adoc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b1f0a21203
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/Governance.adoc
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+= Governance of the Git project
+
+This document describes the social structures in place in the Git project. It intends to be neither prescriptive, nor express a judgment on the merit of those existing ways of working.
+
+== Scope
+
+The Git project develops a free and open source distributed version control system.
+The scope of the project covers https://git-scm.com/install/source[the git.git repository],
+associated repositories hosted under the https://github.com/git[git GitHub organization] and the <git@vger.kernel.org> mailing list.
+Other spaces are considered external to the Git project for the purposes of this document.
+
+[NOTE]
+====
+Not knowing exactly what is considered part of the Git project or a third-party project, I have left the following repositories and initiatives out of the scope of this document for now, but I am not sure about this choice:
+
+* https://github.com/git-for-windows/git[Git for Windows]
+* https://github.com/j6t/git-gui[git-gui]
+* https://github.com/j6t/gitk[gitk]
+
+====
+
+== Roles
+
+=== Maintainer
+
+The maintainer is the head of the project.
+Their primary responsibility is to select patches submitted to the mailing list and integrate them in the git.git repository, to which they have an exclusive write access.
+The maintainer is Junio C Hamano, who was nominated by Linus Torvalds in 2005.footnote:[https://lore.kernel.org/git/Pine.LNX.4.58.0507262004320.3227@g5.osdl.org/[Meet the new maintainer], Linus Torvalds, 26 Jul 2005]
+
+When they take a break, the maintainer delegates their responsibilities to others. There are no firm plans about what would happen if the current maintainer was to retire, but
+there is interest in preparing for such a possibility.footnote:[https://lore.kernel.org/git/ZwAIM6GO3VtoG3ZM@pks.im/[Re: the latter half of october, the maintainer goes offline], Patrick Steinhardt, 4 Oct 2024]
+
+=== Project Leadership Committee
+
+The Project Leadership Committee (PLC) liaises between the project and the Software Freedom Conservancy, Git's fiscal sponsor.
+They coordinate on a private mailing list reachable at <git@sfconservancy.org>.footnote:plc[https://lore.kernel.org/git/20180816224138.GA15490@sigill.intra.peff.net/[Git Project Leadership Committee], Jeff King, 16 Aug 2018] Their responsibilities are:
+
+* to approve project expenses footnote:plc[]
+* to oversee the use of the GIT trademark, following the https://git-scm.com/about/trademark[policy] footnote:[https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAP8UFD3WQ64FuXarugF%2BCJ_-5sFNBCnqPE0AEBK-Ka78ituKTg@mail.gmail.com/[Handling the Git trademark], Christian Couder, 13 Sep 2022]
+* to enforce the code of conduct footnote:[https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md[Git Code of Conduct]]
+* to produce an annual report of their activities, sent on the mailing list footnote:[https://lore.kernel.org/git/aNblfuTDdtxLdImC@nand.local/[Git / Software Freedom Conservancy status report (2025)], Taylor Blau, 26 Sep 2025]
+
+The committee consists of at least three members, who currently are:
+
+* Junio C Hamano
+* Christian Couder
+* Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
+* Taylor Blau
+
+Those members are renewed by cooptation, after consultation with the community. When doing so, the over-representation of an employer in the PLC is avoided.footnote:[https://lore.kernel.org/git/20180821020849.GA2527@sigill.intra.peff.net/[Re: Git Project
+Leadership Committee], Jeff King, 20 Aug 2018]
+
+NOTE: Is there any existing process for leaving the PLC? (for instance, if someone has become inactive in the project or is in conflict with the rest of the project's leadership)
+
+=== Security team
+
+The security team triages vulnerability reports sent to the project.
+They do so on the private mailing list <git-security@googlegroups.com>.
+This team also includes people operating widely used git hosting sites and packagers.footnote:[https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqbj9d3y9x.fsf@gitster.g/[A note from the maintainer], Junio C Hamano, 1 Oct 2026]
+
+[NOTE]
+Is the list of subscribers to git-security public? +
+How does one gain and lose access to this list? +
+Does Johannnes Schindelin play a particular role in the security team? https://lore.kernel.org/git/5cc325c6-579e-4fed-7071-a3ff98d51ccb@gmx.de/[He seems to
+have the lead in triaging vulnerability reports], but I can't really tell to what extent
+
+=== Localization maintainer
+
+Jiang Xin coordinates the localization of Git by maintaining https://github.com/git-l10n/git-po[git-po].
+
+NOTE: How would their successor be appointed?
+
+=== Website maintainers
+
+The https://git-scm.com[git-scm.com] and https://git.github.io[git.github.io] websites are maintained by members of the https://github.com/git[git GitHub organization].
+
+NOTE: Under what conditions does one get added/removed from there? Are all members of the GitHub organization entitled to maintain all repositories there? Who has "Owner" access to the organization?
+
+== Decision procedures
+
+The decision process for technical changes and the venues for the associated discussions are documented in `Documentation/DecisionProcess`.
+
+There is no firm process yet for decisions on policy changes. There is ongoing discussion about adopting a voting process for such
+decisions.footnote:[https://lore.kernel.org/git/summit-2026.94e33e9ddf234334.06@ttaylorr.com/T/#m7b0180985c2ea6325078119406d09a4e4f0b9481[Documentation: propose community voting process], Emily Shaffer, 21 Oct 2026]
+For now, decisions are taken by the maintainer, who is expected to follow the consensus emerging after a discussion on the mailing list.footnote:[https://lore.kernel.org/git/summit-2026.94e33e9ddf234334.06@ttaylorr.com/[AI contribution policy], Taylor Blau, 6 Oct 2026]
diff --git a/Documentation/Makefile b/Documentation/Makefile
index 1747f4a00b..b2b58aa9d0 100644
--- a/Documentation/Makefile
+++ b/Documentation/Makefile
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ API_DOCS = $(patsubst %.adoc,%,$(filter-out technical/api-index-skel.adoc techni
 SP_ARTICLES += $(API_DOCS)
 
 TECH_DOCS += BreakingChanges
+TECH_DOCS += Governance
 TECH_DOCS += DecisionMaking
 TECH_DOCS += ReviewingGuidelines
 TECH_DOCS += MyFirstContribution

base-commit: ebdc087dc99d68bb340c282b2ba5f722def28d19
-- 
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