From 3088529e73bef2a33f0e5656de128f5e6eac76a6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Chris Henzie Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:01:26 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Add policy for maintainer takeover of stale PRs Adds a section to the contributing guide outlining the process for maintainers to take over stale pull requests. This ensures valuable contributions are not lost when an author becomes unresponsive, while preserving original author credit and providing transparency on modifications, as discussed at the 2026 containerd Maintainer Summit. Assisted-by: Antigravity Signed-off-by: Chris Henzie --- CONTRIBUTING.md | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+) diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index 87ab029..1843f3c 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -44,6 +44,29 @@ the feature was conceived and can inform future documentation contributions. Make sure that new tests are added for bugs in order to catch regressions and tests with new features to exercise the new functionality that is added. +## Maintainer Takeover of Stale Pull Requests + +The containerd project values the effort that contributors put into pull +requests. However, life priorities change, and sometimes a contributor may +become unresponsive before a pull request is fully ready to be merged. + +If a pull request is nearly complete but requires some final adjustments (such +as addressing minor review nits or resolving merge conflicts), and the original +author is not responding to comments, a maintainer may choose to take over the +pull request to ensure the work is not lost and can be merged. + +In such cases, we follow a practice inspired by the +[Linux kernel contribution guidelines](https://docs.kernel.org/maintainer/modifying-patches.html): + +- **Authorship Preservation**: The maintainer will preserve the original + author's identity in the commit history (e.g., keeping them as the commit + author or using `Co-authored-by`). +- **Modifications**: The method of applying modifications (e.g., amending + existing commits for minor fixes vs. adding follow-up commits for larger + changes) is left to the maintainer's preference on a case-by-case basis. +- **Audit Trail**: Maintainers should provide a link back to the original pull + request in the final commit message to maintain traceability. + ## Commit Messages There are times for one line commit messages and this is not one of them.