0002: Benevolent maintainer with named deputies

Date: 2026-10-05. Status: accepted.

Context

The project needs decisions to be made quickly and consistently while it is small, and needs continuity if the maintainer is unavailable. Committees slow a young project; a single point of failure endangers an old one.

Decision

Le Chen is the maintainer of record and decides on scope, releases and the trust rules. Deputies are named in MAINTAINERS.md by area; a deputy may cut a release if the maintainer is unavailable for thirty days, and may merge changes in their area. Disagreements are recorded as decisions here, with the maintainer’s ruling and the reasoning.

Consequences

• One accountable person per decision; a written trail for each.
• Succession is explicit and tested by the thirty-day rule.
• This decision is revisited when the catalog has area maintainers from more than one institution.