Subject: [bug#74736] [PATCH v10] Add Guix Consensus Document process

From: Simon Tournier <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2025 01:43:50 +0100

Hi,

I sent v9 (Message-ID: [email-masked]) but that has not
reached the list, hum?!  And Hartmut sent a diff as v9, hence v10.  :-)

Changes compared to v8:

 • Changed some level for the subtitles.  And added “Getting Started”.
 
 • Removed trailing dot after repository URL.

 • Reworded ’prospective’.

 • Removed redundant information about “submitted” and pointed to the
   dedicated section.  Clarified using the term “draft”.

 • Replaced the term RFC by GCD.

 • Added a sentence about the role of “Sponsor”.  And added a
   “Contributor” role.  The idea is to rely on that term for clarifying
   “author” and who can discuss.  But then, the term does not appear…

 • Add section “Channel of Communication”.

 • Revamped the artist view of the timeline.

 • Minor tweaks under “Submission Period”.

 • Minor tweaks under “Discussion Period”.  Added a paragraph to deal
   with the case where “Author” and “Sponsor” vanish.

 • Minor tweaks under “Deliberation Period”: moved sentence; removed
   redundant information.

 • Minor tweaks under “Merging GCD”.

WDYT?

Cheers,
simon

--
diff -u /tmp/001-gcd-process-v8.md /tmp/001-gcd-process-v10.md
--- /tmp/001-gcd-process-v8.md	2025-01-17 01:21:27.574454166 +0100
+++ /tmp/001-gcd-process-v10.md	2025-01-17 01:36:03.524561874 +0100
@@ -70,37 +70,39 @@
 These day-to-day contributions remain governed by the process described
 by the manual in its “Contributing” chapter.

-## How the Process Works
+# How the Process Works
+
+## Getting Started

 1. Clone
-   https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix/guix-consensus-documents.git .
+   https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix/guix-consensus-documents.git
 2. Copy `000-template.md` to `XYZ-short-name.md` where `short-name`
    is a short descriptive name and `XYZ` is the sequence number.
-3. Write your GCD following the template’s structure.  The GCD must not
-   be prospective; it must formalize an idea and sketch a plan to
-   implement it, even if not all details are known.  If it intends to
+3. Write your GCD following the template’s structure.  The GCD must
+   describe a concrete idea and sketch a plan to implement it, even
+   if not all details are known; the GCD must not be a brainstorming
+   session or a vague idea but a concrete proposal.  If it intends to
    deprecate a previously-accepted GCD, it must explicitly say so.
 4. Submit the GCD as a patch to [email-masked]`.
 5. Announce your GCD at [email-masked]` and look for *sponsors*:
    one or more people who will support the GCD and participate in
    discussions by your side (see below).

-The GCD is *submitted* once it has at least one sponsor in addition to
-the author(s).  See “Submission Period” below.
-
-Submitted GCD is announced at [email-masked]`.
+The GCD is now in “draft” state and will be *submitted* once it has at least
+one sponsor in addition to the author(s).  See “Submission Period” below.

 ## Roles

-  - An *author* is the person or one of the persons submitting the RFC.
+  - An *author* is the person or one of the persons submitting the GCD.
     Authors bear the responsibility to carry out the process to its
     conclusion.

   - A *sponsor* is a contributor who, during the submission period (see
     below), informs the author(s) that they would like to support the
-    RFC by participating in discussions, providing constructive comments
+    GCD by participating in discussions, providing constructive comments
     to help the author(s), soliciting opinions, and acting as
-    timekeepers.
+    timekeepers.  As a sponsor, please make sure that all have the time
+    and space for expressing their comments.

     Sponsors should be contributors who consider being sufficiently
     familiar with the project’s practices; hence it is recommended, but
@@ -111,6 +113,20 @@
     members is maintained in the file `etc/teams.scm` in the Guix
     repository.

+  - A *contributor* is a person contributing to Guix either with code,
+    translation, reviewing, etc. and more broadly any person feeling part
+    of the Guix community.
+
+## Channels of Communication
+
+ - The *draft* is sent to [email-masked]`.
+
+ - Once *submitted*, the GCD is announced to [email-masked]` and discussed
+   using the assigned issue number.
+
+ - The *final* document is published to [email-masked]` and the
+   deliberating replies are sent to the assigned issue number.
+
 ## Timeline

 A GCD must follow the process illustrated by the diagram below,
@@ -118,49 +134,60 @@

 ```
-                         +-----------+
-          +- - - - - - ->| Withdrawn |<----------------------+
-          :              +-----------+                       |
-          :                    ^                             |
-          :                    :                             |
-+--------------------+   +---------------------+   +---------------------+
-| Submission Period	 |   |  Discussion Period  |   | Deliberation Period |
-|  (up to 7 days)    |-->|   (30–60 days)      |-->|     (14 days)		 |
-+--------------------+   +---------------------+   +---------------------+
-                                                             |
-                                                             |
+       draft                    submitted                   final
++--------------------+    +---------------------+   +---------------------+
+| Submission Period  |    |  Discussion Period  |   | Deliberation Period |
+|  (up to 7 days)    |-X->|   (30–60 days)      |-->|     (14 days)	      |
++--------------------+ :  +---------------------+   +---------------------+
+          :            :           :                         |
+          :            v           :                         |
+          :         canceled       v                         |
+          :                  o-----------o                   |
+          +- - - - - - - - ->| Withdrawn |<----------------- X
+                             o-----------o                   |
                                                              V
-                                                       +----------+
-                                                       | Accepted |
-                                                       +----------+
+                                                        o----------o
+                                                        | Accepted |
+                                                        o----------o
 ```

 The subsections below detail the various periods and their duration.

 ### Submission Period (up to 7 days)

-Anyone can author and submit a GCD as a regular patch and look for
-sponsors (see below).  The GCD is *submitted* once one or more people
+Anyone can author and propose a GCD as a regular patch and look for
+sponsors (see “Roles”).  The GCD is *submitted* once one or more people
 have volunteered to be sponsors by publicly replying “I sponsor”; it is
-canceled if no sponsor could be found during that period.  The next step
+*canceled* if no sponsor could be found during that period.  The next step
 is the *discussion period*.

 Authors may withdraw their GCD at any time; they can resubmit it again
-later, possibly under a new GCD number.
+later (under a new GCD number).

 ### Discussion Period (at least 30 days, up to 60 days)

-Once submitted, the GCD is publicly discussed; authors are encouraged to
-publish updated versions incorporating feedback during the discussion.
+Once submitted, the GCD is publicly discussed by all the members of the
+community.  Authors are encouraged to publish updated versions
+incorporating feedback during the discussion; members are encouraged to
+share a summary of their main concerns or opposition, if any, for being
+included under section “Open Issues” in the document.

 When deemed appropriate, between 30 days and 60 days after the start
 of the discussion period, the author(s) may publish a final version and
 announce the start of the *deliberation period*.

+If after 60 days, a final version is not yet published, then a grace period
+of 14 days is granted.  Finally the GCD is considered as *stale* and the last
+update is picked for the final version.
+
 ### Deliberation Period (14 days)

-All team members can participate in deliberation and are encouraged to
-do so.
+Deliberation aims at consolidating consensus; see “Decision Making”
+below.
+
+The *deliberation period* starts when the authors publish a final version of
+the GCD at [email-masked]`.  Anyone who is a team member is a
+deliberating member and is encouraged to contribute to the deliberation.

 Once the final version is published, team members have 14 days to send
 one of the following replies on the patch-tracking entry of the GCD:
@@ -172,16 +199,9 @@
   proposal.  A team member sending this reply should have made
   constructive comments during the discussion period.

-The GCD is *accepted* if (1) at least 25% of all team members send a
-reply, and (2) no one disapproves.  In other cases, the GCD is
-*withdrawn*.
-
-Deliberation aims at consolidating consensus; see “Decision Making”
-below.
-
-Anyone who is a team member is a deliberating member and is encouraged
-to contribute to the deliberation.  Team members are defined by the
-file etc/teams.scm (see “Teams” in the manual).
+The GCD is *accepted* if (1) at least 25% of all team members–as of
+the start of the “Deliberation Period”–send a reply, and (2) no one
+disapproves.  In other cases, the GCD is *withdrawn*.

 GCD acceptance is not a rubber stamp; in particular, it does not mean
 the proposal will effectively be implemented, but it does mean that all
@@ -206,16 +226,16 @@
 details, you are encouraged to read
 <https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/consensus>.

-## Merging Final GCDs
+## Merging GCD

-Whether it is accepted or withdrawn, a committer merges the final GCD
-following these steps:
+Whether it is accepted or withdrawn, a person who has commit permission
+to the GCD repository merges the GCD following these steps:

 1. filling in the remaining metadata in the GCD headers (changing the
    `status` to `accepted` or `withdrawn`; adding the URL of the
    discussion in the `discussion` header; updating the `date` header; if
    previously-accepted GCDs are deprecated by this new GCD, change the
-   `status` header accordingly);
+   `status` header accordingly with `deprecated`);
 2. committing everything;
 3. announcing the publication of the GCD.

Diff finished.  Fri Jan 17 01:36:38 2025

--
title: Guix Consensus Document Process
id: 001
status: submitted
discussion: https://issues.guix.gnu.org/74736
authors: Simon Tournier, Noé Lopez, Ludovic Courtès
sponsors: pukkamustard, Ricardo Wurmus
date-submitted: 2024-12-12
date: 2025-01-15
SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0 OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only
---

# Summary

This document describes the _Guix Consensus Document_ (GCD) process of the
Guix project.  The GCD process is intended to provide a consistent and
structured way to propose, discuss, and decide on major changes
affecting the project.  It aims to draw attention of community members
on important decisions, technical or not, and to give them a chance to
weigh in.

# Motivation

Day-to-day work on Guix revolves around informal interactions, peer
review, and consensus-based decision making.  As the community grows, so
does the stream of proposed changes, and no single person is able to
keep track of all of them.

The GCD process is a mechanism to determine whether a proposed change is
“significant” enough to require attention from the community at large
and if so, to provide a documented way to bring about broad community
discussion and to collectively decide on the proposal.

A change may be deemed “significant” when it could only be reverted at a
high cost or, for technical changes, when it has the potential to
disrupt user scripts and programs or user workflows.  Examples include:

- changing the `<package>` record type and/or its interfaces;
- adding or removing a `guix` sub-command;
- changing the channel mechanism;
- changing project governance policy such as teams, decision making, the
  deprecation policy, or this very document;
- changing the contributor workflow and related infrastructure (mailing
  lists, source code repository and forge, continuous integration, etc.).

# Detailed Design

## When to Follow This Process

The GCD process applies only to “significant” changes, which include:

- changes that modify user-facing interfaces that may be relied on
  (command-line interfaces, core Scheme interfaces);
- big restructuring of packages;
- hard to revert changes;
- significant project infrastructure or workflow changes;
- governance or changes to the way we collaborate.

Someone submitting a patch for any such change may be asked to submit an
GCD first.

Most day-to-day contributions do *not* require a GCD; examples include:

- adding or updating packages, removing outdated packages;
- fixing security issues and bugs in a way that does not change
  interfaces;
- updating the manual, updating translations;
- changing the configuration of systems part of project infrastructure
  in a user-invisible way.

These day-to-day contributions remain governed by the process described
by the manual in its “Contributing” chapter.

# How the Process Works

## Getting Started

1. Clone
   https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix/guix-consensus-documents.git
2. Copy `000-template.md` to `XYZ-short-name.md` where `short-name`
   is a short descriptive name and `XYZ` is the sequence number.
3. Write your GCD following the template’s structure.  The GCD must 
   describe a concrete idea and sketch a plan to implement it, even 
   if not all details are known; the GCD must not be a brainstorming
   session or a vague idea but a concrete proposal.  If it intends to
   deprecate a previously-accepted GCD, it must explicitly say so.
4. Submit the GCD as a patch to [email-masked]`.
5. Announce your GCD at [email-masked]` and look for *sponsors*:
   one or more people who will support the GCD and participate in
   discussions by your side (see below).

The GCD is now in “draft” state and will be *submitted* once it has at least
one sponsor in addition to the author(s).  See “Submission Period” below.

## Roles

  - An *author* is the person or one of the persons submitting the GCD.
    Authors bear the responsibility to carry out the process to its
    conclusion.

  - A *sponsor* is a contributor who, during the submission period (see
    below), informs the author(s) that they would like to support the
    GCD by participating in discussions, providing constructive comments
    to help the author(s), soliciting opinions, and acting as
    timekeepers.  As a sponsor, please make sure that all have the time
    and space for expressing their comments.

    Sponsors should be contributors who consider being sufficiently
    familiar with the project’s practices; hence it is recommended, but
    not mandatory, to be a team member.

  - A *team member* is the member of a team, as defined by the Guix
    project in the manual.  Currently, the list of teams and their
    members is maintained in the file `etc/teams.scm` in the Guix
    repository.

  - A *contributor* is a person contributing to Guix either with code,
    translation, reviewing, etc. and more broadly any person feeling part
    of the Guix community.

## Channels of Communication

 - The *draft* is sent to [email-masked]`.
 
 - Once *submitted*, the GCD is announced to [email-masked]` and discussed
   using the assigned issue number.
   
 - The *final* document is published to [email-masked]` and the
   deliberating replies are sent to the assigned issue number.

## Timeline

A GCD must follow the process illustrated by the diagram below,
consisting of several *periods*.

```
       draft                    submitted                   final
+--------------------+    +---------------------+   +---------------------+
| Submission Period  |    |  Discussion Period  |   | Deliberation Period |
|  (up to 7 days)    |-X->|   (30–60 days)      |-->|     (14 days)	      |
+--------------------+ :  +---------------------+   +---------------------+
          :            :           :                         |
          :            v           :                         |
          :         canceled       v                         |
          :                  o-----------o                   |
          +- - - - - - - - ->| Withdrawn |<----------------- X
                             o-----------o                   |
                                                             V
                                                        o----------o
                                                        | Accepted |
                                                        o----------o
```

The subsections below detail the various periods and their duration.

### Submission Period (up to 7 days)

Anyone can author and propose a GCD as a regular patch and look for
sponsors (see “Roles”).  The GCD is *submitted* once one or more people
have volunteered to be sponsors by publicly replying “I sponsor”; it is
*canceled* if no sponsor could be found during that period.  The next step
is the *discussion period*.

Authors may withdraw their GCD at any time; they can resubmit it again
later (under a new GCD number).

### Discussion Period (at least 30 days, up to 60 days)

Once submitted, the GCD is publicly discussed by all the members of the
community.  Authors are encouraged to publish updated versions
incorporating feedback during the discussion; members are encouraged to
share a summary of their main concerns or opposition, if any, for being
included under section “Open Issues” in the document.

When deemed appropriate, between 30 days and 60 days after the start
of the discussion period, the author(s) may publish a final version and
announce the start of the *deliberation period*.

If after 60 days, a final version is not yet published, then a grace period
of 14 days is granted.  Finally the GCD is considered as *stale* and the last 
update is picked for the final version.

### Deliberation Period (14 days)

Deliberation aims at consolidating consensus; see “Decision Making”
below.

The *deliberation period* starts when the authors publish a final version of
the GCD at [email-masked]`.  Anyone who is a team member is a
deliberating member and is encouraged to contribute to the deliberation.

Once the final version is published, team members have 14 days to send
one of the following replies on the patch-tracking entry of the GCD:

- “I support”, meaning that one supports the proposal;
- “I accept”, meaning that one consents to the implementation of the
  proposal;
- “I disapprove”, meaning that one opposes the implementation of the
  proposal.  A team member sending this reply should have made
  constructive comments during the discussion period.

The GCD is *accepted* if (1) at least 25% of all team members–as of 
the start of the “Deliberation Period”–send a reply, and (2) no one 
disapproves.  In other cases, the GCD is *withdrawn*.

GCD acceptance is not a rubber stamp; in particular, it does not mean
the proposal will effectively be implemented, but it does mean that all
the participants consent to its implementation.

Similarly, withdrawal does not necessarily equate with rejection; it
could mean that more discussion and thought is needed before ideas in
the GCD are accepted by the community.

## Decision Making

Contributors and even more so team members are expected to help build
consensus.  By using consensus, we are committed to finding solutions
that everyone can live with.

Thus, no decision is made against significant concerns; these concerns
are actively resolved through counter proposals.  A deliberating member
disapproving a proposal bears a responsibility for finding alternatives,
proposing ideas or code, or explaining the rationale for the status quo.

To learn what consensus decision making means and understand its finer
details, you are encouraged to read
<https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/consensus>.

## Merging GCD

Whether it is accepted or withdrawn, a person who has commit permission 
to the GCD repository merges the GCD following these steps:

1. filling in the remaining metadata in the GCD headers (changing the
   `status` to `accepted` or `withdrawn`; adding the URL of the
   discussion in the `discussion` header; updating the `date` header; if
   previously-accepted GCDs are deprecated by this new GCD, change the
   `status` header accordingly with `deprecated`);
2. committing everything;
3. announcing the publication of the GCD.

All the GCDs are dual-licensed under the [Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike
4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) license and the
[GNU Free Documentation License 1.3, with no Invariant Sections, no
Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html) or (at your option)
any later version.

## GCD Template

The expected structure of GCDs is captured by the template in the file
`000-template.md`, written in English with Markdown syntax.

## Cost of Reverting

The GCD process described in this document can be amended by subsequent
GCDs.

## Drawbacks

There is a risk that the additional process will hinder contribution more than
it would help.  We should stay alert that the process is only a way to help
contribution, not an end in itself.

Discussions could easily have a low signal-to-noise ratio.  We will
collectively pay attention to over- and under-representation of voices
and notably avoid repeating arguments, avoid using exclusionary jargon,
and solicit opinions of those who remained silent.

## Open Issues

There are still questions regarding the desired scope of the process.
While we want to ensure that technical changes that affect users are
well-considered, we certainly don’t want the process to become unduly
burdensome.  This is a careful balance which will require care to
maintain moving forward.