docs: Governance proposed changes #6117

jaychia · 2026-02-03T22:40:21Z

Changes Made

Changes governance model to Contributor -> Maintainer/Review -> Maintainer/Merge -> PMC
Adds a new section in the documentation for recognizing members of the community

TODO:

We will give Maintainer/Write merge permissions to main.
We will disable any tests that run in our private cloud environment for now, and work on re-enabling them in a separate sandboxed AWS environment
We will be distributing credly badges to maintainers (and maybe contributors as well) to recognize their contributions to the repo!

greptile-apps · 2026-02-03T22:42:12Z

Greptile Overview

Greptile Summary

This PR updates Daft’s governance documentation to a new role ladder (Contributor → Maintainer/Read → Maintainer/Write → PMC) in CONTRIBUTING.md, adds a new maintainers roster page under docs/contributing/maintainers.md, and wires it into the docs sidebar by moving the Contributing section to a top-level entry in docs/SUMMARY.md.

One nav-related issue worth addressing: docs/SUMMARY.md currently lists examples/voice-ai-analytics.md twice under Examples, which may cause duplicated sidebar entries in the rendered docs.

Confidence Score: 4/5

This PR is safe to merge; changes are limited to documentation and navigation wiring.
Docs-only changes with consistent governance wording and a straightforward new page added to SUMMARY. The only actionable concern found is a duplicated SUMMARY entry that can affect docs navigation UX but won’t break builds in most setups.
docs/SUMMARY.md (duplicate example entry); docs/contributing/maintainers.md (verify names/affiliations are correct for your governance process).

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
CONTRIBUTING.md	Updates governance section to new Contributor → Maintainer/Read → Maintainer/Write → PMC model and links to maintainers page.
docs/SUMMARY.md	Moves Contributing section to top-level in docs SUMMARY and adds link to new contributing/maintainers.md page.
docs/contributing/maintainers.md	Adds new maintainers documentation page with Maintainer/Read, Maintainer/Write, and PMC member tables.

Sequence Diagram

sequenceDiagram
  participant Author as PR Author
  participant Repo as Repository Docs
  participant Contrib as CONTRIBUTING.md
  participant Summary as docs/SUMMARY.md
  participant Maint as docs/contributing/maintainers.md
  participant Site as Docs Site (sidebar)

  Author->>Contrib: Update governance model text
  Author->>Contrib: Add link to maintainers page
  Author->>Maint: Add Maintainers/Read, Maintainers/Write, PMC tables
  Author->>Summary: Add Maintainers page to Contributing section
  Site->>Summary: Build sidebar/navigation
  Site->>Contrib: Render governance section + link
  Site->>Maint: Render maintainers listings
  Note over Summary,Site: Duplicate entries in SUMMARY can surface as repeated sidebar items

greptile-apps

_{3 files reviewed, 1 comment}

_{Edit Code Review Agent Settings | Greptile}

greptile-apps · 2026-02-03T22:42:20Z

Additional Comments (1)

docs/SUMMARY.md
docs/SUMMARY.md currently includes the same page twice: examples/voice-ai-analytics.md appears at Examples -> Voice AI Analytics with Faster-Whisper... and again as Examples -> Voice AI Analytics. This PR moves the Contributing section but doesn’t address the duplicate entry; since SUMMARY drives nav generation, the duplicate can confuse users and make the sidebar look broken.

Consider removing one of the two entries (or renaming one to point at a different example if that was intended).

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: docs/SUMMARY.md
Line: 66:71

Comment:
`docs/SUMMARY.md` currently includes the same page twice: `examples/voice-ai-analytics.md` appears at `Examples -> Voice AI Analytics with Faster-Whisper...` and again as `Examples -> Voice AI Analytics`. This PR moves the Contributing section but doesn’t address the duplicate entry; since SUMMARY drives nav generation, the duplicate can confuse users and make the sidebar look broken.

Consider removing one of the two entries (or renaming one to point at a different example if that was intended).

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

dujl · 2026-02-04T02:24:18Z

I'm very excited to hear that the governance structure of the Daft community has become clearer. We look forward to Daft thriving under the new governance model.

plotor · 2026-02-04T13:16:24Z

That's great! As the governance model gradually improves, Daft will attract more and more community developers to join.

One small suggestion: should we consider adding a selection mechanism for Contributors/Maintainers? For example, regularly using a voting mechanism to select contributors who have made outstanding contributions to Daft and nominate them as Maintainers?

universalmind303 · 2026-02-04T16:19:57Z

CONTRIBUTING.md

+| [@aaron-ang](https://github.com/aaron-ang) | | Distance/similarity functions, string casing, list operations, SQL |
+| [@Abyss-lord](https://github.com/Abyss-lord) | ctyun | Logger improvements |
+| [@ConeyLiu](https://github.com/ConeyLiu) | Tencent | UTF-8 functions, regexp_replace, floor division |
+| [@datanikkthegreek](https://github.com/datanikkthegreek) | Databricks | Delta Lake, Unity Catalog (issues & PRs) |
+| [@destroyer22719](https://github.com/destroyer22719) | Queen's University | Expression aliases, documentation |
+| [@djouallah](https://github.com/djouallah) | Microsoft | SQL/Spark ecosystem feedback |
+| [@fenfeng9](https://github.com/fenfeng9) | | Embedding dtype fixes |
+| [@gpathak128](https://github.com/gpathak128) | | JSON null field handling |
+| [@hongbo-miao](https://github.com/hongbo-miao) | Archer Aviation | Installation, PyArrow, UUID support |
+| [@ion-elgreco](https://github.com/ion-elgreco) | NATO | Ray execution, production feedback |
+| [@j3nkii](https://github.com/j3nkii) | | Dashboard fixes, documentation |
+| [@jakajancar](https://github.com/jakajancar) | Assertly | Catalog design, SQL features |
+| [@kyo-tom](https://github.com/kyo-tom) | DTStack | OpenAI embedder token limits |
+| [@lhoestq](https://github.com/lhoestq) | Hugging Face | HuggingFace ecosystem collaboration |
+| [@Lucas61000](https://github.com/Lucas61000) | | SQL STRUCT parsing |
+| [@malcolmgreaves](https://github.com/malcolmgreaves) | Meaves Industries | Documentation, tutorials, embeddings |
+| [@rahulkodali](https://github.com/rahulkodali) | UT Austin | Multi-input hash function |
+| [@shaofengshi](https://github.com/shaofengshi) | Datastrato | Apache Gravitino catalog integration |


was this autogenerated? some of these people have only made 1-2 contributions. I wouldn't necessarily call them official contributors just because of a one time PR. To me an official contributor would be contributions + consistency

+1, a good variety of consistency, contributions, and issues

I'm in favor of just removing this as it doesnt really add any value. it's just copy/paste of the public gh contributor data, and adds a maintenance burden to keep it up to date with anyone thats contributed.

If the goal is to show love to the regular contributors, there are better methods. For example, many OSS repos have a "top contributors" footer in the readme that's auto generated using gh actions.

This makes sense, I did just scan the repository for contributors.

The "top contributors" method makes more sense, let's explore that approach instead.

I feel that there is no need to list contributors separately in a maintenance document. A contributor means that anyone who has made a contribution can be called a contributor.
I think it is more meaningful to explain everyone's contributions to the community in each release note.

universalmind303 · 2026-02-04T16:20:41Z

CONTRIBUTING.md

+
+### Maintainer
+
+A Maintainer is a recognized Contributor who has demonstrated sustained, meaningful contributions to the project. Maintainers are nominated by existing Maintainers or PMC members and approved by a majority vote of the PMC.


it may be a good time to formalize the path to becoming a maintainer too.

I think the advanced path here can include two dimensions: one is contributing to major features, and the other is promoting and applying daft itself.

A major feature might mean 40 PRs? Of course, this may be a non-mandatory rule. If the feature itself is particularly useful for daft, I think we can adopt a nomination mechanism.

Promotion means maintaining a large cluster scale within the company and contributing to community promotion through various channels.

I agree about formalizing this, but let's make this a follow-up instead rather than block the rest of the governance changes

CONTRIBUTING.md

madvart · 2026-02-04T21:27:15Z

CONTRIBUTING.md

+
+A Maintainer is a recognized Contributor who has demonstrated sustained, meaningful contributions to the project. Maintainers are nominated by existing Maintainers or PMC members and approved by a majority vote of the PMC.
+
+- **Maintainer/Read**: Recognized contributors with review (and approval) permissions, but without merge access


Suggest calling this "Maintainer (Reviewer)" or just "Reviewer" / similar, to better reflect this level. Read is confusing and more of an implementation detail.

madvart · 2026-02-04T21:27:54Z

CONTRIBUTING.md

+A Maintainer is a recognized Contributor who has demonstrated sustained, meaningful contributions to the project. Maintainers are nominated by existing Maintainers or PMC members and approved by a majority vote of the PMC.
+
+- **Maintainer/Read**: Recognized contributors with review (and approval) permissions, but without merge access
+- **Maintainer/Write**: Maintainer/Read with merge access to the repository


Similarly, maybe we call this "Maintainer (Merge)" or just "Maintainer"?

Jay-ju · 2026-02-06T02:04:58Z

CONTRIBUTING.md

+- **Maintainer/Review**: Recognized contributors with review (and approval) permissions
+- **Maintainer/Merge**: Maintainers additionally with merge access to the repository
+
+**Maintainers/Read:**


**Maintainers/Read: --> **Maintainers/Review:

Corrected the section title from 'Maintainers/Read' to 'Maintainers/Review' and removed a contributor entry.

jaychia · 2026-02-10T07:10:19Z

Thanks for chiming in everyone! We're merging this now and working on a broader announcement :)

Init proposal

23f980b

greptile-apps bot reviewed Feb 3, 2026

View reviewed changes

jaychia added 2 commits February 3, 2026 14:55

merge maintainers into contributing

5760bee

Add links and sort

722a3f4

universalmind303 reviewed Feb 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

CONTRIBUTING.md Show resolved Hide resolved

madvart reviewed Feb 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

jaychia added 2 commits February 5, 2026 10:59

remove contributor list

4666625

Cleanup maintainers section

53bd487

jaychia changed the title ~~Governance proposed changes~~ chore: Governance proposed changes Feb 5, 2026

jaychia changed the title ~~chore: Governance proposed changes~~ docs: Governance proposed changes Feb 5, 2026

github-actions bot added docs chore labels Feb 5, 2026

Jay-ju reviewed Feb 6, 2026

View reviewed changes

github-actions bot removed the chore label Feb 9, 2026

Fix maintainer section title and update contributors

06ad8ca

Corrected the section title from 'Maintainers/Read' to 'Maintainers/Review' and removed a contributor entry.

jaychia enabled auto-merge (squash) February 10, 2026 07:10

Merge branch 'main' into jay/governance

f68fbe8

jaychia merged commit ab4182b into main Feb 10, 2026
29 checks passed

jaychia deleted the jay/governance branch February 10, 2026 07:23


		### Maintainer

		A Maintainer is a recognized Contributor who has demonstrated sustained, meaningful contributions to the project. Maintainers are nominated by existing Maintainers or PMC members and approved by a majority vote of the PMC.


		A Maintainer is a recognized Contributor who has demonstrated sustained, meaningful contributions to the project. Maintainers are nominated by existing Maintainers or PMC members and approved by a majority vote of the PMC.

		- Maintainer/Read: Recognized contributors with review (and approval) permissions, but without merge access

docs: Governance proposed changes #6117

docs: Governance proposed changes #6117

Uh oh!

Conversation

jaychia commented Feb 3, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Changes Made

Uh oh!

greptile-apps bot commented Feb 3, 2026

Greptile Overview

Greptile Summary

Confidence Score: 4/5

Important Files Changed

Sequence Diagram

Uh oh!

greptile-apps bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

greptile-apps bot commented Feb 3, 2026

Uh oh!

dujl commented Feb 4, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

plotor commented Feb 4, 2026

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

jaychia commented Feb 10, 2026

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

7 participants

jaychia commented Feb 3, 2026 •

edited

Loading

dujl commented Feb 4, 2026 •

edited

Loading