FlagCX is an open-source project governed by its maintainers with the support of the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI). This document describes the project's roles, decision-making process, maintainer changes, and escalation process.
FlagCX aims to make technical decisions openly and on their merits. Project participants are expected to:
- discuss changes constructively and in good faith;
- consider the long-term interests of the project and its users;
- give community members a reasonable opportunity to participate in decisions; and
- follow the Code of Conduct and Contributing Guide.
A contributor is anyone who contributes to FlagCX. Contributions include code, documentation, issue reports, design proposals, pull-request reviews, testing, and participation in project discussions.
Contributors may:
- open and participate in issues and pull requests;
- propose technical, documentation, and governance changes; and
- review and test proposed changes.
Maintainers are responsible for the ongoing stewardship of FlagCX. The current maintainers are listed in MAINTAINERS.md.
Maintainers are expected to:
- review issues and pull requests;
- guide the project's technical direction and development priorities;
- help contributors participate effectively;
- keep the project reliable, secure, and maintainable;
- enforce the Code of Conduct; and
- participate in project decisions and votes.
Maintainers have permission to approve and merge changes and to perform other repository administration needed for the project.
Code ownership is a responsibility assigned to maintainers for particular parts of the
repository; it is not a separate community role. Code owners provide subject-matter
review for changes in their areas. The current assignments are recorded in
.github/CODEOWNERS, which is the source of truth for code
ownership.
BAAI selects one of the maintainers to serve as technical lead. The technical lead
helps coordinate the project's overall technical direction and resolves tied
maintainer votes as described below. The current technical lead is
MC952-arch.
The technical lead does not unilaterally decide ordinary project matters when maintainer consensus can be reached.
Project decisions should normally be discussed in the relevant public GitHub issue or pull request. Design rationale, significant concerns, and the resulting decision should be recorded there so that contributors can understand and participate in the process.
FlagCX prefers consensus over formal voting. Consensus means that the relevant participants have had a reasonable opportunity to comment, material concerns have been considered, and no maintainer has an unresolved objection.
Routine decisions may be made through the normal issue and pull-request process. Broader or potentially incompatible changes should first be proposed in an issue so their impact can be discussed before implementation.
A pull request normally requires at least two approvals before it is merged. At least one approval must come from a code owner for the affected area.
In an exceptional and time-sensitive circumstance, a maintainer may merge a pull request without satisfying the normal approval requirement. This should be rare. The maintainer must explain the reason for the exception in the pull request, and the change remains subject to follow-up review and correction.
If maintainers cannot reach consensus after reasonable discussion, any maintainer may call for a vote in the relevant issue or pull request. All active maintainers must be given a reasonable opportunity to vote.
Each active maintainer has one vote. A proposal passes when it receives more than 50% of the votes cast. Abstentions are not counted as votes cast. If the vote is tied, the technical lead decides the outcome and records the decision and its rationale in the same public discussion.
An active maintainer is one who has participated in at least one pull-request review, code contribution, or project meeting during the preceding six months.
Maintainer status recognizes sustained responsibility for the project; it is not granted solely on the basis of employment or organizational affiliation.
Existing maintainers may recommend a contributor for maintainership based on the quality and continuity of the contributor's work, technical judgment, collaboration, and demonstrated commitment to FlagCX. BAAI has final authority to approve maintainer appointments.
A maintainer may step down at any time by notifying the other maintainers and updating MAINTAINERS.md.
A maintainer who has performed none of the activities described above for six consecutive months is automatically considered inactive. Inactive maintainers are not counted as active maintainers for voting purposes. Participation in an eligible activity restores active status unless the maintainer has formally stepped down or been removed.
BAAI has final authority over the removal of maintainers. Removal may be considered for prolonged inactivity, serious or repeated violations of the Code of Conduct, abuse of project privileges, or conduct that materially harms the project. Except where urgent action is required for security, safety, or legal reasons, the maintainer should be informed of the concern and given an opportunity to respond.
Changes to the maintainer list must be recorded in MAINTAINERS.md.
The maintainers govern FlagCX's ordinary technical and community work through the processes above. As the organization backing the project, BAAI retains final authority over critical project decisions, including:
- appointment and removal of maintainers;
- selection of the technical lead;
- transfer, dissolution, or fundamental reorganization of the project;
- licensing and intellectual-property matters;
- project names and trademarks;
- significant security, legal, financial, or compliance matters;
- major changes to the project's scope; and
- changes to BAAI's reserved authority under this document.
Maintainers should discuss critical decisions publicly when confidentiality, security, privacy, and legal obligations permit. If BAAI exercises its reserved authority, the decision and its rationale should be documented publicly to the extent reasonably possible.
All participants must follow the Code of Conduct. Conduct incidents should be reported through the FlagCX WeChat group as described there. Reports should be handled privately. The owner of the WeChat group has final authority over Code of Conduct enforcement decisions.
Anyone may propose a governance change through a pull request, with an accompanying issue when the change is substantial.
Ordinary clarifications follow the standard pull-request approval process. Substantive changes require maintainer consensus or, if consensus cannot be reached, a maintainer vote under the process above. Changes involving a critical decision or BAAI's reserved authority also require BAAI's approval.