Governance and Community
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Cloud Custodian is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) incubating project governed by principles of transparency, vendor neutrality, and scalable community leadership. The project functions as a rules engine for managing public cloud accounts and resources, led by a community of hundreds of contributors. Governance ensures that technical decisions and project evolution remain open and accountable to the community.
The governance structure defines clear roles for participants, ranging from casual contributors to core maintainers who oversee the entire project. This model supports a distributed architecture where specific functional areas, such as cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) or specialized tools (c7n-mailer, c7n-org), are managed by dedicated area maintainers.
Sources: GOVERNANCE.md:1-5, README.md:38-40
Maintainer Roles and Responsibilities
The project utilizes a structured contributor ladder to facilitate growth and define expectations for leadership. Maintainers are divided into two primary tiers: Core Maintainers and Area Maintainers.
Contributor Ladder
- Contributor: Any individual who follows the documentation and Code of Conduct, files issues, or submits pull requests.
- Area Maintainer: Individuals who own and triage pull requests and issues within specific project areas. They are responsible for mentoring contributors and managing CI/CD for their area.
- Core Maintainer: Leaders who oversee the entire project, manage cross-area releases, coordinate with the CNCF, and handle security initiatives.
Sources: GOVERNANCE.md:21-42
Role Requirements and Commitment
| Role | Minimum Requirements | Commitment Level |
|---|---|---|
| Area Maintainer | ≥10 meaningful contributions per year; 6+ months involvement | ~10 hours per month |
| Core Maintainer | Area Maintainer in multiple areas; project-wide understanding | ~5 days per month |
| Emeritus | Transitioned after 12+ months of inactivity | Recognition only |
Sources: GOVERNANCE.md:28-48
The diagram above illustrates the progression through the contributor ladder and the offboarding process for inactive maintainers.
Project Organization
Cloud Custodian is organized into functional areas. Each area requires at least one Area Maintainer, defined in OWNERS.md and CODEOWNERS.
Functional Areas
- Cloud Providers: AWS, GCP, Azure, Tencent Cloud, and Oracle Cloud.
- Management Tools:
c7n-orgfor multi-cloud management. - Operations: Mailing & Notifications (
c7n-mailer), alert handling. - Community Support: Documentation, website, and community guidance.
- Infrastructure: Releases, packaging, CI/CD, and container images.
Sources: GOVERNANCE.md:7-16
This graph represents the decentralized management of the project across various functional domains.
Decision-Making and Escalation
Technical decisions follow a consensus-based model. If consensus cannot be reached within an area, or if a change affects multiple areas, the issue escalates through the maintainer hierarchy.
- Area Consensus: Area Maintainers guide technical decisions for their specific components.
- Core Approval: Changes to governance or cross-area architecture require approval from Core Maintainers.
- CNCF Escalation: The final escalation path for unresolved governance issues is the CNCF TOC Liaison.
Sources: GOVERNANCE.md:50-54
The sequence diagram details the path a technical proposal takes from initial contribution to final resolution.
Community Engagement and Resources
The project maintains multiple channels for user support and developer collaboration. All participants must adhere to the CNCF Code of Conduct.
Communication Channels
- Slack/Gitter: Real-time chat for help and contributor coordination.
- Mailing List: Used for important project announcements and community meeting invites.
- Community Meetings: Open meetings for all users and developers; notes are archived in GitHub Discussions.
- YouTube: Tutorials, meeting videos, and presentations.
Sources: README.md:38-40, README.md:144-165
Development and Roadmap
The project roadmap is aspirational and maintained as a GitHub Org-level board. Because the project relies on volunteer time, items are not strictly milestoned. Technical contributors are encouraged to use the development guides provided for specific providers, such as the GCP development workflow involving uv for dependency management and Terraform for recording flight data.
Sources: ROADMAP.md:3-10, tools/c7n_gcp/development.md:14-25
Summary
Governance in Cloud Custodian is designed to scale through decentralized area ownership while maintaining project integrity via Core Maintainer oversight. By providing a clear contributor ladder and transparent decision-making processes, the project fosters a healthy ecosystem for managing public cloud infrastructure. Participation is open to all who follow the CNCF guidelines and contribute to the shared roadmap.