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

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 binary size < 45 MB, memory < 800 MB idle, JS < 50 KB gz budgets
• Runs benchmarks on every release candidate
• Proposes and reviews Prompt 2 compliance
• Maintains docs/PERFORMANCE.md (when created)

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