Project Refactoring and Roadmap to v3.0.0

[brusdev]

Hello everyone,

As many of you are aware, the Apache Software Foundation recently announced that Apache Artemis has become a Top-Level Project (TLP). To reflect this milestone and ensure our codebase, branding, and infrastructure align with the new project status, we are proposing a significant refactoring of our ecosystem.

This move is not just a name change; it represents the evolution of the project into its own dedicated identity. Below is the proposed plan for the transition.

Important Changes
This transition involves several important changes regarding our infrastructure and API: renaming GitHub Repositories, renaming Quay.io repositories, and renaming CRDs.

Why we are making these changes
The primary driver is the official renaming following Artemis's move to being a TLP. This requires us to move away from the "ActiveMQ" prefix to establish a clean, independent namespace.

Reference: ASF Announcement - New Top-Level Projects

Proposed Action Plan & Required Changes
We are targeting a major version bump to v3.0.0 to accommodate these breaking changes:

1. Infrastructure Renaming:

   • GitHub: Rename all repositories to reflect the new naming convention.
   • Quay.io: Clone current repositories to new destinations and update all internal image references.

2. Source & Documentation:

   • Perform a global sweep to replace "Apache ActiveMQ Artemis" with "Apache Artemis".
   • Remove all stale references to "ActiveMQ" within the source code.

3. Custom Resource (CR) Evolution:

   • Renaming: Deprecate ActiveMQArtemis CRs and introduce the new Broker CRs.
   • Group Change: Move the CR group from amq.io to arkmq.org.
   • CRD Updates: Release new CRDs while maintaining a deprecation path for existing ones to ensure a smoother transition.

Community Impact
We recognize that these changes are significant. To ensure a smooth transition, we have categorized the impact based on your upgrade path:

• Users staying on version < 3.0.0:

  • No functional impact: Your existing deployments will continue to run as-is.

  • Action Recommended: Even if you aren't upgrading yet, we strongly encourage you to update your git remotes and bookmarks to point to the new GitHub locations to ensure continued access to the legacy branches and issue tracking.

• Users migrating to version >= 3.0.0:

  • Mandatory Update: You must point your manifests and CI/CD pipelines to the new Quay.io repositories, as version 3.0.0 images will only be published to the new registry locations.

  • CRD Transition: While we are providing a deprecation path, we highly recommend migrating your manifests to the new Broker CRDs (under the arkmq.org group) to take full advantage of the 3.0.0 features.

  • Workflow Update: You will need to update your git remotes to the new repository URLs to receive the latest updates and security patches.

Estimated Schedule (February 2026)

• Beginning of February: Refactoring officially commences. This includes internal source code cleanup and documentation updates to remove "ActiveMQ" references.

• Mid-February: High-impact infrastructure shifts occur. We will execute the GitHub repository renaming and the migration of the Quay.io registries during this window.

• End of February: Final testing phase and the official v3.0.0 release, fully transitioning the project to the arkmq.org group.

We welcome your feedback, concerns, or suggestions on this transition plan. Please share your thoughts in this thread so we can ensure the smoothest possible migration for all contributors and users.