CONTRIBUTORS.md

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Contributor Guidelines

Thank you for your interest and support for tRPC! This document outlines the roles and responsibilities of contributors in the project, as well as the process for becoming a Contributor and losing Maintainer status. We hope that this document will help every contributor understand the growth path and make a greater contribution to the project's development.

Contributor Roles and Responsibilities

we have two main contributor roles: Contributor and Maintainer. Here is a brief introduction to these two roles:

1. Contributor: A contributor to the project who can contribute code, documentation, testing, and other resources. Contributors provide valuable resources to the project, helping it to continuously improve and develop.
2. Maintainer: A maintainer of the project who is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the project, including reviewing and merging PRs, handling issues, and releasing versions. Maintainers are key members of the project and have a significant impact on the project's development direction and decision-making.

How to become a Maintainer

We welcome every contributor to contribute to the project's development and encourage contributors to upgrade to the role of Maintainer. The following are the conditions for upgrading from Contributor to Maintainer:

1. Continuous contribution: Contributors need to contribute to the project continuously for a period of time (e.g., 3 months). This demonstrates the contributor's attention and enthusiasm for the project.
2. Quality assurance: The code or documentation submitted by contributors needs to maintain a high level of quality, meet the project's specifications, and have a positive impact on the project.
3. Active participation: Contributors need to actively participate in project discussions and decision-making, providing constructive opinions and suggestions for the project's development.
4. Team collaboration: Contributors need to have good teamwork skills, communicate friendly with other contributors and maintainers, and work together to solve problems.
5. Responsibility: Contributors need to have a certain sense of responsibility and be willing to undertake some of the project maintenance work, including reviewing PRs and handling issues. When a contributor meets the above conditions, existing maintainers will evaluate them.

If they meet the requirements of Maintainer, they will be invited to become a new Maintainer.

Losing Maintainers status

Maintainer have important responsibilities in the project, and we hope that every Maintainer can maintain their attention and enthusiasm for the project. However, we also understand that everyone's time and energy are limited, so when Maintainers cannot continue to fulfill their responsibilities, they will be downgraded to the role of Contributor:

1. Long-term inactivity: If a Maintainer has not participated in project maintenance work, including reviewing PRs and handling issues, for a period of time (e.g., 3 months), they will be considered inactive.
2. Quality issues: If a Maintainer's work in the project has serious quality issues that affect the project's development, they will be considered not meeting the requirements of Maintainer.
3. Team collaboration issues: If a Maintainer has serious communication or teamwork issues with other contributors and maintainers, such as disrespecting others' opinions, frequent conflicts, or refusing to collaborate, which affects the project's normal operation and atmosphere, they will be considered not meeting the requirements of Maintainer.
4. Violation of rules: If a Maintainer violates the project's rules or code of conduct, including but not limited to leaking sensitive information or abusing privileges, they will be considered not meeting the requirements of Maintainer.
5. Voluntary application: If a Maintainer cannot continue to fulfill their responsibilities due to personal reasons, they can voluntarily apply to be downgraded to the role of Contributor.