VayuPress Maintainers

Version: 1.0.0 (Prompt 11 — Community Governance)
Governed by: VayuPress Governance Constitution v6.0, Prompt 11

Current Maintainers

Additional maintainers welcome — see "Becoming a Maintainer" below.

Maintainer Roles

Today every role below is held by the one maintainer above. The roles are written down so that the work they name has an owner when others join.

The Constitution defines 7 maintainer roles. One person may hold multiple roles; no role may be vacant for more than 90 days.

BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life)

Responsibilities:

• Final decision authority on architecture, community, and ethics disputes
• Ratifies ADRs and RFC outcomes
• Sets release schedule and version strategy
• Represents VayuPress publicly

Constraints:

• Cannot unilaterally override Security Lead on P1 security incidents
• Must publish annual transparency report
• Succession plan must exist and be documented

Contact: admin@vayupress.com

Architecture Lead

Responsibilities:

• Owns docs/ARCHITECTURE.md and all ADRs
• Reviews and approves changes to main.go architecture
• Enforces SQLite-first doctrine (ADR-0001)
• Maintains the performance budget (Prompt 2)
• Reviews all RFCs for architectural soundness

Contact: architecture@vayupress.com

Performance Lead

Responsibilities:

• Owns the binary-size budget (45 MB gzipped, make check-size) and the Halcyon and console byte budgets
• Runs benchmarks on every release candidate
• Proposes and reviews Prompt 2 compliance
• Maintains docs/BENCHMARKS.md

Contact: performance@vayupress.com

Security Lead

Responsibilities:

• Owns SECURITY.md, docs/THREAT-MODEL.md
• Triages vulnerability reports within 72 hours (P1 critical)
• Reviews all auth, crypto, network code changes
• Manages coordinated disclosure process
• Signs off on security-related releases
• Runs govulncheck and gosec review per release

Contact: security@vayupress.com

Community Lead

Responsibilities:

• Owns CONTRIBUTING.md, CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
• Moderates GitHub Discussions and issues
• Manages RFC process (facilitates, does not decide)
• Onboards new contributors
• Burnout prevention: monitors maintainer activity, raises concerns
• Mental health support: connects contributors with resources when needed

Contact: community@vayupress.com

Release Manager

Responsibilities:

• Owns docs/RELEASES.md and CHANGELOG.md
• Coordinates release timeline and pre-release checklist
• Tags releases and publishes GitHub releases
• Manages hotfix coordination
• Ensures SHA-256 checksums are published

Contact: releases@vayupress.com

Ethics Lead

Responsibilities:

• Chairs the Ethical Review Board (Prompt 12)
• Owns ETHICS.md and docs/ETHICAL-REVIEW-PROCESS.md
• Reviews features for dark patterns, surveillance, data minimization
• Publishes annual ethics metrics
• Triages reports to ethics@vayupress.com

Contact: ethics@vayupress.com

Ethical Review Board

The Ethical Review Board consists of 3 rotating maintainers (including the Ethics Lead). Rotation occurs annually or when a member steps down.

Current ERB: @johalputt (Ethics Lead, chair)
ERB contact: ethics@vayupress.com

ERB decisions require 2/3 majority. The BDFL may appeal an ERB decision, but the appeal itself is logged and published.

Becoming a Maintainer

Path to Maintainership

1. Contributor — Merged ≥ 1 PR; signed DCO; active in issues/discussions
2. Regular Contributor — ≥ 5 meaningful PRs over ≥ 3 months; demonstrates understanding of Constitution
3. Maintainer candidate — Nominated by existing maintainer; confirmed by BDFL after 2-week public comment period

Requirements

• Agree to the Code of Conduct and Governance Constitution
• Sign the DCO on all commits (git commit -s)
• Respond to mentions within 7 days (or designate a backup)
• Participate in ≥ 1 release per quarter, or raise a concern
• Attend ≥ 1 community sync per quarter (async notes accepted)

Nomination Process

Open an issue titled: [NOMINATION] <Name> for <Role> with:

• GitHub profile
• Contribution summary (PRs, reviews, discussions)
• Why this role specifically
• Endorsement from an existing maintainer

After 14 days of community comment, BDFL makes the decision.

Stepping Down

Maintainers may step down at any time by:

1. Opening an issue: [STEPPING DOWN] <Name> from <Role>
2. Completing any in-progress release or critical task (or handing it off)
3. Updating this file and .github/CODEOWNERS

Stepping down is honorable. There is no minimum tenure requirement.

Burnout Prevention

The Community Lead actively monitors for signs of maintainer burnout:

• Unresponsive for > 14 days without notice → check-in
• Declining review quality → private conversation
• Negative tone in issues → private conversation + possible break
• Request for break → honored immediately, no questions asked

Mental health resources: A curated list is available at community@vayupress.com. No maintainer should feel alone.

Every maintainer is entitled to take a 4-week break per year without explanation. During breaks, other maintainers cover responsibilities.

Decision-Making