Contributing

Contributing

Thank you for helping shape TOP. Three channels:

1. Bugs & small fixes → an Issue, or a PR. (Typos, kit bugs, doc clarifications.)
2. Ideas & questions → a Discussion. Scouting an idea is the Recon stage.
3. A change to the paradigm → a STEP.

STEPs

A STEP — Standard TOP Enhancement Proposal — is how the paradigm evolves, one deliberate step at a time. One STEP is one task, one purpose, one topic — split anything larger.

The full process, the status pipeline (Recon → Brief → Vetting → Cleared / Redacted → Deployed), and the track layout live in steps/README.md. In short:

1. Copy steps/STEP-template.md into the right Desk folder as STEP-<DESK>-<n>-<slug>.md.
2. Fill it in and open a PR with Status: Brief.
3. The Director moves it to Cleared or Redacted, with the reason recorded in the STEP.

Merging

All merges to main require the Director's review (CODEOWNERS). The Specification changes only through a Cleared — and ultimately Deployed — STEP.

License of contributions

By contributing you agree that your code is licensed Apache-2.0 and your specification / STEP text CC-BY-4.0, consistent with this repository.