docs(governance): state who may author normative text - #120
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The rule that normative spec changes need an organizational sponsor has been applied in review but was written down nowhere, so contributors met it for the first time as a surprise on their own PR. GOVERNANCE.md gains a section stating the rule, the reason, and what needs no sponsor; CONTRIBUTING.md points at it from the spec-change checklist. No change in practice. It also makes explicit that anyone may propose a normative change, that proposals are judged on the argument alone, and that a Maintainer carries the PR when an accepted proposal has no sponsor, which was already how this worked but was equally unwritten. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Missed by the earlier README pass. No spec file uses the marker yet, so the template is the only place it appeared. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This was referenced Aug 4, 2026
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Aug 4, 2026
Mirrors agentrust-io/trace-spec#120. The rule that normative spec changes need an organizational sponsor is applied in review but written down nowhere, so contributors meet it for the first time on their own PR, after doing the work. #270 is a live example: a normative MUST binding agent_id to OCSF ai_agent.instance_uid, authored individually, where the authorship question only surfaced at review. No change in practice. It also writes down that anyone may propose a normative change, that proposals are judged on the argument alone, and that a Maintainer carries the PR when an accepted proposal has no sponsor, all of which was already true and equally unwritten. Calls out explicitly that informative crosswalks and mappings to external schemas need no sponsor, since that is the path a proposal like #270 can take today. Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Why
The rule that normative spec changes need an organizational sponsor is applied in review but is written down nowhere. GOVERNANCE.md covers who may merge and how long comment periods run, and CONTRIBUTING.md covers the mechanics, but neither says who may author a MUST. Contributors therefore meet the rule for the first time as a surprise on their own PR, after doing the work, which is the worst possible moment.
This changes nothing in practice. It writes down what already happens.
What it says
CONTRIBUTING.md gets a pointer at the top of the spec-change checklist so it is read before the work starts, not after.
Second commit strips a leftover em dash from the
CHANGED:marker template, missed by the earlier README pass. No spec file uses the marker yet, so the template was the only occurrence.Process
GOVERNANCE.md amendments require a PR, a 14-day comment period, and Project Lead approval, per the Amendments section of that same document. Not merging this. The clock starts now and it needs your sign-off.
Worth mirroring into
agent-manifestafterwards, since the same rule applies there and the same surprise is currently happening on agentrust-io/agent-manifest#270.🤖 Generated with Claude Code