Contributing to SAGA

SAGA is an open specification. Contributions are welcome from any individual, company, or organization.

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Ways to Contribute

Report issues. If you find an ambiguity, error, or gap in the spec, open a GitHub issue. Clear problem statements are the most valuable contribution.

Propose changes. Non-trivial changes go through the RFC process (see below). Trivial fixes (typos, formatting, clarifications that don’t change behavior) can be submitted as PRs directly.

Implement and report back. Building a SAGA-compliant platform and hitting friction is signal. Open an issue describing what was hard and what you had to interpret.

Join the Working Group. The Working Group reviews RFCs and votes on changes. Participation is open. See the Working Group section below.

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RFC Process

All non-trivial changes to the specification go through the RFC process.

What requires an RFC

• New fields, layers, or required properties
• Changes to the Transfer or Clone Protocol
• Changes to conformance requirements
• Changes to cryptographic schemes
• New export types
• Any change that could break existing implementations

What does not require an RFC

• Typo fixes
• Formatting changes
• Clarifications that don’t change normative behavior (MUST/SHOULD/MAY)
• Additions to appendices that are explicitly non-normative

Submitting an RFC

1. Open an issue first. Describe the problem you’re solving and your proposed direction. This is the place for early feedback before you write the full RFC.

2. Write the RFC. Copy rfcs/0000-template.md to rfcs/0000-your-title.md. Fill it out completely.

3. Submit a PR. Open a pull request adding your RFC file. The PR description should summarize the change and link to the issue.

4. 30-day comment period. The PR stays open for at least 30 days. Anyone may comment. The author is expected to respond to substantive feedback.

5. Working Group review. After the comment period, the Working Group reviews the RFC and votes.
   • MINOR and PATCH changes require a simple majority.
   • MAJOR changes (breaking) require a 2/3 supermajority.
6. Merge or close. Accepted RFCs are merged to main. Closed RFCs are kept for historical reference.

RFC Template

See rfcs/0000-template.md.

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Working Group

The SAGA Working Group governs the specification. It consists of:

• Representatives from platforms that have implemented SAGA
• Individual contributors with significant participation in the RFC process
• FlowState (founding steward, holds one vote)

Joining: Open an issue titled “Working Group membership request” with a brief description of your interest and any relevant implementation work.

Voting: Working Group votes happen in GitHub discussions. Each member gets one vote. Votes are recorded publicly.

Founding steward: FlowState holds stewardship for SAGA v1.x. Stewardship transfers to an independent governance body at v2.0.

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Code of Conduct

Participation in this project requires treating others with respect. Debates about technical tradeoffs are welcome. Personal attacks, harassment, and bad-faith arguments are not.

Maintainers may remove comments or contributions that violate this standard without warning.

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Questions

Open an issue or email [email protected].