Skip to content
Closed
Changes from all commits
Commits
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension

Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
70 changes: 70 additions & 0 deletions docs/operating-guidelines/operating-principles.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
# Open Source Committee Operating Principles

> These are the committee's day-to-day working rules of engagement. Per issue
> #25, they live in the repo as version-controlled markdown at
> `docs/operating-guidelines/operating-principles.md`, amended via pull request.
>
> Authority chain: these principles sit below the Committee Charter
> (`committee-charter.md`, issue #9) and the Agentics Foundation mission and
> vision above them, and above the mechanical OSS Intake Process below them. They
Comment thread
michaeloboyle marked this conversation as resolved.
> are meant to mature into testable definitions over time through tracked issues,
> not to swell into a fixed document. Where these principles and the canonical
> governance document differ, the governance document and the Board govern.

## Purpose

These principles guide how the Open Source Committee operates day-to-day. They
sit below the Foundation mission and the committee charter, and above the
mechanical intake process. They are meant to mature into testable definitions
over time rather than to be a fixed charter.

## Principles

1. **Humans judge, agents execute.** (AF-GOV-002) Agents provide analysis,
logistics, case briefs, and infrastructure. Agents never cast votes, decide
escalation, or propose retraction. The committee's human judgment is the
point; automation makes that judgment efficient and well-informed.

2. **Issues over documents.** Decisions, action items, and working artifacts live
as tracked GitHub issues with named owners, not as prose in meeting notes or
static docs. If it matters, it has an issue number.

3. **The governance doc is the source of truth.** Where implementation diverges
from the canonical intake rules, the doc wins. Code changes follow doc
changes, not the reverse.

4. **Repos are learning resources, not just libraries.** Given how fast code is
now generated, the committee's value is guidance and balances for the
ecosystem, including security and provenance, not raw volume.

5. **Member-only, mission-aligned intake.** Submissions come from members in good
standing, are open source with a clear license, and advance the agentic AI
ecosystem. Incomplete or non-compliant submissions may be declined without
review.

6. **Two-step, simple-majority voting.** Escalation vote, then validation vote;
a simple majority of members voting. Submitters do not vote on their own
submission or its retraction.

7. **Tiered stewardship.** T1 Foundation-Owned, T2 Foundation-Endorsed (approved
through intake, listed on the website), T3 Community-Associated. Tier names
remain open for discussion (#10).

8. **Auditability by default.** Every status change, score, and vote leaves a
durable trail in the issue and the attestation log. No decisions in DMs.

## Open questions to mature next

- Concrete acceptance thresholds per category (donation vs listing vs support).
- CLA / DCO / IP-transfer instrument before any real donation completes (gates
the SummaryBot #33 pilot and any future donation; needs legal counsel).
- Snyk / package-risk evaluation as a standardized pre-review check.
- Definition of "agentic AI ecosystem" scope.

## Relationship to the charter

The charter (`committee-charter.md`, issue #9) defines mission and organizational
Comment thread
michaeloboyle marked this conversation as resolved.
scope, flowing from the Agentics Foundation profile README. These operating
principles are the committee's working rules of engagement underneath that
charter. They are kept short and accrete testable definitions through issues
rather than swelling into a document.