# Governance

## Model

ALPHA uses a **maintainer-led (BDFL)** model. The lead maintainer has final say on roadmap, releases, and disputes,
while decisions are made in the open through issues and pull requests.

| Role | Who | Responsibilities |
|------|-----|------------------|
| Lead maintainer | Adonis Jimenez (@donny-devops) | Roadmap, releases, security response, CODEOWNERS approvals |
| Maintainers | Invited by the lead after sustained quality contributions | Review, triage, merge within owned paths |
| Contributors | Anyone following [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) | Issues, PRs, docs, reviews |

## Decision Making

- Routine changes: one maintainer approval + green CI.
- Security-sensitive paths (see `.github/CODEOWNERS`): lead maintainer approval required.
- Changes to agent guardrails, the commerce policy, or security posture: documented rationale in the PR and a
  CHANGELOG entry.
- Breaking changes: proposed in an issue first, with at least 7 days for comment.

## Releases

Semantic Versioning. Release notes come from [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md).

## Code of Conduct

All participants follow [CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md). Enforcement is handled by the lead maintainer.

## Amendments

This document changes via pull request approved by the lead maintainer.