paperless-gpt/GOVERNANCE.md

# Project Governance

This document outlines the governance model for the paperless-gpt project. It describes how decisions are made and how community members can participate in project development.

## Project Roles

### Users
- People who use paperless-gpt
- Can submit bug reports and feature requests
- Can contribute to discussions
- Can help other users

### Contributors
- Users who contribute to the project
- Submit pull requests
- Improve documentation
- Help with testing
- Participate in issue discussions

### Maintainers
- Review and merge pull requests
- Manage issues and project boards
- Guide technical direction
- Ensure code quality
- Help onboard new contributors
- Responsibilities:
  - Respond to issues and PRs
  - Review code changes
  - Maintain documentation
  - Ensure tests pass
  - Release new versions
  - Uphold code of conduct

### Project Lead
- Final decision maker for project direction
- Sets technical standards
- Manages maintainer team
- Oversees releases
- Current lead: [@icereed](https://github.com/icereed)

## Decision Making

### Technical Decisions
1. **Discussion Phase**
   - Open an issue for discussion
   - Gather community feedback
   - Consider alternatives
   - Document trade-offs

2. **Implementation Phase**
   - Create detailed proposal
   - Submit pull request
   - Address review feedback
   - Update documentation

3. **Review Process**
   - At least one maintainer review
   - Automated tests must pass
   - Documentation must be updated
   - Breaking changes require extra scrutiny

### Project Direction
1. **Long-term Planning**
   - Quarterly roadmap updates
   - Community feedback periods
   - Clear communication of goals
   - Published milestones

2. **Feature Acceptance**
   - Must align with project goals
   - Consider maintenance burden
   - Evaluate user benefit
   - Check implementation feasibility

### Release Process
1. **Version Planning**
   - Follow semantic versioning
   - Document all changes
   - Update dependencies
   - Security review

2. **Release Preparation**
   - Create release branch
   - Run test suite
   - Update changelog
   - Draft release notes

3. **Release Publication**
   - Tag version in repository
   - Publish to registries
   - Announce to community
   - Monitor for issues

## Communication

### Channels
- GitHub Issues: Bug reports, feature requests
- GitHub Discussions: General discussion
- Pull Requests: Code changes
- Discord: Community chat
- Email: Security issues

### Guidelines
- Be respectful and professional
- Stay on topic
- English is the working language
- Document decisions and rationale
- Keep security issues private

## Contributing

### Process
1. **Getting Started**
   - Read contribution guidelines
   - Set up development environment
   - Understand code structure
   - Pick starter issues

2. **Making Changes**
   - Create feature branch
   - Follow code style
   - Write tests
   - Update docs

3. **Submitting Changes**
   - Create pull request
   - Fill out template
   - Respond to reviews
   - Keep changes focused

### Standards
- Follow code style guide
- Include tests
- Update documentation
- Sign commits
- One feature per PR

## Code Review

### Requirements
- At least one maintainer approval
- All tests passing
- Documentation updated
- Code style compliance
- No security issues

### Process
1. **Automated Checks**
   - Linting
   - Tests
   - Coverage
   - Dependencies

2. **Manual Review**
   - Code quality
   - Architecture
   - Security
   - Performance

3. **Final Checks**
   - Merge conflicts
   - Documentation
   - Breaking changes
   - Version updates

## Issue Management

### Categories
- Bug: Software defects
- Feature: New functionality
- Enhancement: Improvements
- Documentation: Doc changes
- Question: User queries

### Priority Levels
1. **Critical**
   - Security issues
   - Major bugs
   - Blocking issues

2. **High**
   - Important features
   - User experience issues
   - Performance problems

3. **Normal**
   - Regular enhancements
   - Minor bugs
   - Documentation updates

4. **Low**
   - Nice-to-have features
   - Style improvements
   - Non-critical fixes

## Project Changes

### Governance Changes
- Open for community discussion
- Two week comment period
- Maintainer consensus required
- Project lead approval needed

### Role Changes
- Based on consistent contributions
- Maintainer nomination
- Community feedback
- Project lead approval

## Success Metrics

### Project Health
- Issue resolution time
- PR merge time
- Test coverage
- Documentation quality
- Community engagement

### Code Quality
- Automated metrics
- Review thoroughness
- Test coverage
- Documentation completeness
- Security standards

This governance model is a living document and may be updated as the project evolves. Changes will be proposed and discussed with the community before implementation.