Governance¶
Status: Interim (single maintainer). This will change as contributors join.
Roles¶
| Role | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Maintainer | Reviews and merges changes; decides on proposals until a maintainer group exists. Currently: the project founder. |
| Contributor | Anyone who opens an issue, a proposal or a pull request. |
How decisions are made¶
- Editorial changes (typos, clarity, examples): any maintainer may merge.
- Framework or spec changes (new or changed practices, document kinds, resolution states, schema fields): open a proposal issue, allow at least 14 days for comment, then the maintainer decides and records the decision in the CHANGELOG.
- Breaking spec changes after v1.0 will require a new major version.
Versioning¶
- The framework and the spec are versioned separately (
docs/vs.reference/spec/). - The spec version appears in every document's
smf:field.
Principles for the project¶
- Vendor-neutral: no document may require a commercial product.
- Interoperate before inventing: prefer referencing or contributing to existing open specs.
- Evidence before novelty: claims of contribution must point to the research landscape.
Path forward¶
When there are enough independent contributors, the project intends to:
- form a small maintainer group from at least two organizations;
- consider contributing SMF to a neutral foundation (for example, the LF AI & Data Foundation's sandbox stage). This is an option, not a commitment.