Prometheus Governance 2.0 by gouthamve · Pull Request #1 · prometheus/governance

gouthamve · 2025-02-12T16:17:44Z

Previous feedback has been captured here

Please provide any feedback you might have.

Previous feedback has been captured [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fnDfySwINOPk9OPSsV_m2Uzf1NZU9pf7QaUSiOQAT54/edit?tab=t.0) Please provide any feedback you might have. Signed-off-by: gouthamve <gouthamve@gmail.com>

jkroepke

Hi, I'm trying to give some feedback from a member perspective that recently joined the prometheus team. Could be possible that it is crystal clear from you point of view, however for me it's a bit difficult to read.

GOVERNANCE.md

beorn7

Thanks for driving this.

I read through it and just collected some thought and notes. Sorry for the amount of things…

GOVERNANCE.md

ROLES.md

sysadmind · 2025-02-19T03:00:10Z

GOVERNANCE.md

+Decisions requiring a vote include: issuing written policy, amending existing  
+written policy, creating, removing, or modifying a working group, all spending,  
+hiring, and contracting, official responses to publicly raised issues, or any  
+other decisions that at least two of the members present decide require a vote.


I like the list idea that Björn suggested. I think to the point on the final item, it would be better to reword it a bit. My suggestion: Any other decisions that two or more members present agree should be put to a vote

sysadmind · 2025-02-19T03:07:30Z

GOVERNANCE.md

+hiring, and contracting, official responses to publicly raised issues, or any  
+other decisions that at least two of the members present decide require a vote.
+
+Votes happen by simple majority.


I agree with the feedback here. If we are taking the time to spell out the governance, I think we should put in the time to spell out the voting.

To the point about potential votes that are not yes/no, what if this suggested that all votes be phrased as yes/no? Yes/no voting keeps this document simple. There could be scenarios that do not make sense to phrase as a yes/no, but if votes should be yes/no, I think that may cover the most likely scenarios. In the proposal case above, the vote could be 6 yes/no votes.

GOVERNANCE.md

sysadmind · 2025-02-19T03:40:11Z

GOVERNANCE.md

+
+If and when contributors' commitment levels change, contributors can consider stepping down (moving down the contributor ladder) vs moving to emeritus status (completely stepping away from the project).
+
+Contact the Maintainers about changing to Emeritus status, or reducing your contributor level.


I think the Steering Committee would only need to be involved when this is involuntary. Are there other situations where it makes sense for the Steering Committee to be involved?

ROLES.md

GOVERNANCE.md

RichiH · 2025-04-08T15:52:11Z

GOVERNANCE.md

+
+Inactive members can be automatically removed.
+
+Involuntary removal or demotion of Maintainers or Steering Committee members is handled through a vote by a majority of the current Steering Committee. If this pertains to a Steering Committee member, that member is not eligible to discuss or vote on the matter.


THey should be eligible to discuss, just not to vote

GOVERNANCE.md

Fix governance.md link to roles.md Signed-off-by: Siavash Safi <siavash@cloudflare.com>

GOVERNANCE.md

fix: roles link

Thanks for all the reviews Beorn, Richi and Joe! Signed-off-by: Goutham <gouthamve@gmail.com>

metalmatze · 2025-11-21T14:19:23Z

@gouthamve and I have worked on all comments and resolved them only to realize GitHub only showed us 40 of them. We're going to meet next week Fri again to work on the remaining comments.

- Reword charter responsibilities for clarity - Update trademark language to reference LF and CNCF - Rename "Vacancies" to "Backfilling" - Clarify affiliation change rules for SC members - Extend amendment comment period to two weeks - Various grammar and style improvements - Add TODOs for Code of Conduct violation handling and election timing Signed-off-by: Matthias Loibl <mail@matthiasloibl.com>

Signed-off-by: Matthias Loibl <mail@matthiasloibl.com>

GOVERNANCE.md

bboreham

Great stuff! Some thoughts below.

GOVERNANCE.md

ROLES.md

Signed-off-by: Goutham Veeramachaneni <gouthamve@gmail.com>

codesome

Looks great. I have some non-blocking comments, so approving it.

ROLES.md

GOVERNANCE.md

aknuds1

LGTM

* Use condorcet as decided in the dev summit * Make the contact mechanism use explicit Signed-off-by: Goutham <gouthamve@gmail.com>

SuperQ · 2026-01-26T14:14:51Z

GOVERNANCE.md

+
+## Roles
+
+We have a contributor ladder that includes the roles of Contributor, Member, Maintainer, and Steering Committee. The Steering Committee responsibilities and elections are outlined below. The remaining roles are detailed in [ROLES.md](./ROLES.md).


There is no Steering Committee section in ROLES.md.

Since the steering committee is explained in detail here in GOVERNANCE.md, I wouldn't duplicate the explanations, but at least ROLES.md should contain a "Steering Committee" section that has a very short summary of what that is and then refers to the relevant section of the governance for detailed explanations.

Also of note, maybe, that a member can be elected onto the steering committee without being a maintainer, i.e. steering committee is not a "next step" on a linear ladder.

I find this very confusing that we explain some roles in ROLES.md, some roles in this document.

What about:

Document all roles in GOVERNANCE.md

Have a separate Ladder.md document for describing typical flow?

Alternatively:

Move stering commitee to ROLES.md and remove from here.

See https://github.com/prometheus/governance/pull/1/changes#r2919677838

beorn7

Bunch of minor comments. I don't see any as blocking, so I also approve. I would prefer resolving comments first, but since the steering committee can do this cleanup easily, it's not a hard requirement.

beorn7 · 2026-01-28T12:40:58Z

GOVERNANCE.md

+
+This document describes the rules and governance of the Prometheus project. It is meant to be followed by all the developers of the project and the Prometheus community. This governance is an open, living document, and will continue to evolve as the community and project change.
+
+It outlines the Steering Committee's roles and responsibilities, the decision-making process, and the election procedures for committee members. It also details the contributor ladder, including the roles of Contributor, Member, and Maintainer, along with the requirements and privileges associated with each.


As the ladder includes "Steering Committee" in line 15 below, I'd include it here as well for consistency.

I'd also suggest linking where to find description of those roles exactly. Especially, given the current state has some roles define in this file, some in ROLES.md

I believe a contribution ladder is inspired by a career ladder, which is usually present in organizations, where there is a set of clear requirements that an individual is assessed against, and a clear outcome: PASS/FAIL.

Becoming a Steering Committee member does not work like this. There are no clear requirements for joining the Steering Committee; it's election-based, so assessing requirements against a given individual's contributions doesn't make sense.

I'll make this a bit clearer in the document.

beorn7 · 2026-01-28T12:43:12Z

GOVERNANCE.md

+
+## Roles
+
+We have a contributor ladder that includes the roles of Contributor, Member, Maintainer, and Steering Committee. The Steering Committee responsibilities and elections are outlined below. The remaining roles are detailed in [ROLES.md](./ROLES.md).


Since the steering committee is explained in detail here in GOVERNANCE.md, I wouldn't duplicate the explanations, but at least ROLES.md should contain a "Steering Committee" section that has a very short summary of what that is and then refers to the relevant section of the governance for detailed explanations.

Also of note, maybe, that a member can be elected onto the steering committee without being a maintainer, i.e. steering committee is not a "next step" on a linear ladder.

GOVERNANCE.md

ROLES.md

GOVERNANCE.md

ROLES.md

GOVERNANCE.md

bwplotka

LGTM in general, but left some minor comments and question.

Especially the maintainer role and process of adding new maintainers has some gaps e.g. https://github.com/prometheus/governance/pull/1/files?diff=unified&w=0#r2736795551

bwplotka · 2026-02-26T13:32:03Z

GOVERNANCE.md

+
+This document describes the rules and governance of the Prometheus project. It is meant to be followed by all the developers of the project and the Prometheus community. This governance is an open, living document, and will continue to evolve as the community and project change.
+
+It outlines the Steering Committee's roles and responsibilities, the decision-making process, and the election procedures for committee members. It also details the contributor ladder, including the roles of Contributor, Member, and Maintainer, along with the requirements and privileges associated with each.


I'd also suggest linking where to find description of those roles exactly. Especially, given the current state has some roles define in this file, some in ROLES.md

GOVERNANCE.md

bwplotka · 2026-02-26T13:37:11Z

GOVERNANCE.md

+
+## Roles
+
+We have a contributor ladder that includes the roles of Contributor, Member, Maintainer, and Steering Committee. The Steering Committee responsibilities and elections are outlined below. The remaining roles are detailed in [ROLES.md](./ROLES.md).


I find this very confusing that we explain some roles in ROLES.md, some roles in this document.

What about:

Document all roles in GOVERNANCE.md

Have a separate Ladder.md document for describing typical flow?

Alternatively:

Move stering commitee to ROLES.md and remove from here.

GOVERNANCE.md

ROLES.md

Co-authored-by: Björn Rabenstein <github@rabenste.in> Co-authored-by: Bartlomiej Plotka <bwplotka@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Goutham Veeramachaneni <gouthamve+github@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Goutham Veeramachaneni <gouthamve@gmail.com>

Signed-off-by: Goutham Veeramachaneni <gouthamve@gmail.com>

Signed-off-by: Arthur Silva Sens <arthursens2005@gmail.com>

…ladder Signed-off-by: Arthur Silva Sens <arthursens2005@gmail.com>

Signed-off-by: Arthur Silva Sens <arthursens2005@gmail.com>

ArthurSens · 2026-03-11T18:11:42Z

GOVERNANCE.md

+
+Anyone who is an Organization Member as defined in [ROLES.md](./ROLES.md) may vote.
+
+The electoral roll of all eligible voters will be captured at [elections](./elections/), and the voters’ guide will be captured at the [voters' guide](./elections/).


This elections folder doesn't exist @gouthamve, is this supposed to be created during the election period?

Yes, it will be created for the first election.

jan--f

Looks great!
A small nit: reads like there are always three election officers so no need to write election officer(s), but feel free to ignore. Works as is.

GOVERNANCE.md

Co-authored-by: Jan Fajerski <jan--f@users.noreply.github.com> Signed-off-by: Arthur Silva Sens <arthursens2005@gmail.com>

gouthamve · 2026-03-13T10:03:50Z

Thanks everyone for the detailed feedback!!! It's GO TIME!

Prometheus Governance 2.0

66c3bde

Previous feedback has been captured [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fnDfySwINOPk9OPSsV_m2Uzf1NZU9pf7QaUSiOQAT54/edit?tab=t.0) Please provide any feedback you might have. Signed-off-by: gouthamve <gouthamve@gmail.com>

jkroepke reviewed Feb 12, 2025

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oberkem mentioned this pull request Jul 28, 2025

Consider adopting an MCP server for Prometheus into the prometheus-community org prometheus/proposals#57

Open

fix: roles link

a3d7cb9

Fix governance.md link to roles.md Signed-off-by: Siavash Safi <siavash@cloudflare.com>

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gouthamve added 2 commits November 21, 2025 14:00

Merge pull request #3 from siavashs/fix/roles-link

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fix: roles link

Address review feedback

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Thanks for all the reviews Beorn, Richi and Joe! Signed-off-by: Goutham <gouthamve@gmail.com>

metalmatze force-pushed the initial-governance2 branch from 9edcbe0 to 15b072a Compare November 28, 2025 13:45

metalmatze marked this pull request as ready for review November 28, 2025 13:46

Grammarly pass with humans.

431b947

Signed-off-by: Matthias Loibl <mail@matthiasloibl.com>

ArthurSens reviewed Nov 28, 2025

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gouthamve added 2 commits January 22, 2026 11:57

Handle final TODOs

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Signed-off-by: Goutham Veeramachaneni <gouthamve@gmail.com>

Address Bryan's feedback

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Signed-off-by: Goutham Veeramachaneni <gouthamve@gmail.com>

gouthamve requested a review from beorn7 January 22, 2026 11:22

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aknuds1 approved these changes Jan 24, 2026

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* Use condorcet as decided in the dev summit * Make the contact mechanism use explicit Signed-off-by: Goutham <gouthamve@gmail.com>

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gouthamve force-pushed the initial-governance2 branch from 6888155 to afc0ad6 Compare March 11, 2026 13:57

gouthamve and others added 2 commits March 11, 2026 14:58

Apply suggestions from code review

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Co-authored-by: Björn Rabenstein <github@rabenste.in> Co-authored-by: Bartlomiej Plotka <bwplotka@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Goutham Veeramachaneni <gouthamve+github@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Goutham Veeramachaneni <gouthamve@gmail.com>

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Signed-off-by: Goutham Veeramachaneni <gouthamve@gmail.com>

gouthamve force-pushed the initial-governance2 branch from afc0ad6 to 513655c Compare March 11, 2026 13:59

ArthurSens added 5 commits March 11, 2026 13:33

Grammatical fixes

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Signed-off-by: Arthur Silva Sens <arthursens2005@gmail.com>

Explicitly say that Governance Committee is not part of contribution …

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…ladder Signed-off-by: Arthur Silva Sens <arthursens2005@gmail.com>

Link contributions to its definition

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Clarify maintainer rejection

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gouthamve merged commit c1701f5 into main Mar 13, 2026
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gouthamve deleted the initial-governance2 branch March 13, 2026 10:03


		If and when contributors' commitment levels change, contributors can consider stepping down (moving down the contributor ladder) vs moving to emeritus status (completely stepping away from the project).

		Contact the Maintainers about changing to Emeritus status, or reducing your contributor level.


		Inactive members can be automatically removed.

		Involuntary removal or demotion of Maintainers or Steering Committee members is handled through a vote by a majority of the current Steering Committee. If this pertains to a Steering Committee member, that member is not eligible to discuss or vote on the matter.


		## Roles

		We have a contributor ladder that includes the roles of Contributor, Member, Maintainer, and Steering Committee. The Steering Committee responsibilities and elections are outlined below. The remaining roles are detailed in [ROLES.md](./ROLES.md).


		This document describes the rules and governance of the Prometheus project. It is meant to be followed by all the developers of the project and the Prometheus community. This governance is an open, living document, and will continue to evolve as the community and project change.

		It outlines the Steering Committee's roles and responsibilities, the decision-making process, and the election procedures for committee members. It also details the contributor ladder, including the roles of Contributor, Member, and Maintainer, along with the requirements and privileges associated with each.


		Anyone who is an Organization Member as defined in [ROLES.md](./ROLES.md) may vote.

		The electoral roll of all eligible voters will be captured at [elections](./elections/), and the voters’ guide will be captured at the [voters' guide](./elections/).

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gouthamve commented Feb 12, 2025

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metalmatze commented Nov 21, 2025

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