Add DANDI governance document #204

kabilar · 2025-08-11T21:26:05Z

The governance document is based on the GPT-5 prompt below, and then I manually curated the document.
- Please create a governance document for the DANDI Archive project. This document should apply to all sites (https://dandiarchive.org/, https://about.dandiarchive.org/, https://hub.dandiarchive.org/), organizations (https://github.com/dandi/, https://github.com/dandisets, https://github.com/dandizarrs) and all their repositories. The source code for the DANDI Archive is available here: https://github.com/dandi/. Format this document in markdown. Here are some example governance documents from other projects: https://bids.neuroimaging.io/collaboration/governance.html?h=governance, https://github.com/nebari-dev/governance, https://github.com/cncf/project-template/blob/main/GOVERNANCE-subprojects.md. And discuss who will review and merge pull requests.
Once approved, update the following in the document:
- Effective Date
- Status

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

Co-authored-by: Yaroslav Halchenko <[email protected]>

…ernance-doc

Co-authored-by: Yaroslav Halchenko <[email protected]>

…into governance-doc

…e instance

kabilar · 2025-11-03T21:58:36Z

@satra In this commit, I added a distinction between the DANDI Project codebase and DANDI Archive instance.

kabilar · 2025-11-03T22:00:12Z

@satra @yarikoptic @waxlamp et al., I would like to make a push this week to get this pull request approved and merged. Please let me know if you have any feedback. Thanks.

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR introduces a comprehensive governance document for the DANDI Archive project that establishes formal structures for roles, decision-making, and contribution processes across all DANDI repositories and services. The document was generated using GPT-5 based on example governance documents from other open-source projects and then manually curated.

Key Changes:

Added new governance document defining project structure, roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes
Documented maintainer teams and administrators for all major DANDI repositories
Established formal policies for pull requests, releases, security, and amendments
Added navigation entry in mkdocs.yml to make the governance document accessible

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 7 comments.

File	Description
mkdocs.yml	Added navigation entry for the new Project Governance page under Terms and Policies section
docs/terms-policies/governance.md	New comprehensive governance document covering project structure, roles, decision-making, security, and community processes

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docs/terms-policies/governance.md

Co-authored-by: Copilot <[email protected]>

satra

some suggestions for the doc. mostly to create separation between policy and implementation.

satra · 2025-12-01T20:18:51Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+# DANDI Project Governance
+
+Version: 1.0  
+Effective Date: YYYY-MM-DD  


satra · 2025-12-01T20:20:15Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+
+Multiple deployments of this codebase operate as separate instances, each serving distinct research communities and datasets. The DANDI Archive instance is available at https://dandiarchive.org/, and the EMBER-DANDI Archive instance is available at https://dandi.emberarchive.org/. This document governs over the DANDI Project codebase unless otherwise specified.
+
+Contributing code to DANDI repositories does not grant rights or access to the separate instances. Similarly, using the DANDI Archive or EMBER-DANDI Archive service does not require contributing to the codebase.


Suggested change

Contributing code to DANDI repositories does not grant rights or access to the separate instances. Similarly, using the DANDI Archive or EMBER-DANDI Archive service does not require contributing to the codebase.

Contributing code to DANDI repositories does not grant rights or access to the separate instances. Similarly, using any DANDI instance (e.g. the DANDI Archive or EMBER-DANDI Archive service) does not require contributing to the codebase.

satra · 2025-12-01T20:22:15Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+### 5.5 DANDI Archive Administrators
+
+Responsibilities:
+- Monitor service health and performance.
+- Manage user accounts and permissions.
+- Respond to data access requests and issues.
+
+Administrators:
+- @satra, @yarikoptic, @waxlamp, @mvandenburgh, @jjnesbitt, @danlamanna, @brianhelba, @kabilar, @asmacdo, @bendichter, @candleindark, @CodyCBakerPhD.


this seems to be a catchall and perhaps could be broken into different types of administrators. i don't think everyone here is an administrator for everything.

satra · 2025-12-01T20:39:31Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+- Project Leadership provides guidance on prioritization of targets.
+- Public notes of these meetings are available on [Google Drive](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-jXLpcrh3L650FiZyTFgcs096nZjO2C3).
+
+### 6.2 Consensus Process


could have a reference to sociocracy. one consideration is whether relevant voices have been heard. i.e. should the change be announced somewhere on a project roadmap or board.

satra · 2025-12-01T20:40:51Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+### 8.1 Versioning
+- [Semantic Versioning 2.0](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html) for APIs and libraries.
+
+### 8.2 Release Steps


this seems more implementation than policy. perhaps that's a consideration in going through this document to separate policy from example implementation. the implementation could be an example of some policy on how we will do it in dandi.

satra · 2025-12-01T20:41:27Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+    - Creates a GitHub release for the tag.
+- For [dandi-cli](https://github.com/dandi/dandi-cli), upon release a new version is published to PyPI.
+
+## 9. Security


also sociocracy principle: "good enough for now, safe enough to try".

Co-authored-by: Copilot <[email protected]>

waxlamp

This looks good ovverall (especially as a starting point, if we wish to flesh things out later). Some comments/questions:

The text starting in Section 6 or so becomes quite terse, with sentence fragments in bullet points expressing the general ideas associated with those concepts. I think these can use some more detail and precision.
As I mentioned in one of the comments below, a lot of the role/responsibility/process groupings of bullet points seem like summaries or examples of that entity, rather than an exhaustive definition. This is fine, but we should be more explicit about that if that's the intent.
What is the overall purpose of this document? If it's to bind behavior and process, then I don't think it has enough detail. If it's to transmit an overall idea of how the project runs, then I think it's useful. (I don't have enough experience with governance documents, or governance in general, to understand this fully.)

waxlamp · 2025-12-02T18:34:22Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+
+- a cloud-based platform to store, process, and disseminate data. You can use DANDI to collaborate and publish datasets.
+- open access to data to enable secondary uses of data outside the intent of the study;
+- optimized data storage and access through partnerships, compression and accessibility technologies;


This line jumped out as confusing/surprising. What do "partnerships" (a social construct), "compression" (a low-level data transformation), and "accessibility" (practices for accommodating disabled people) have in common with respect to "data storage and access"?

(I can actually understand the connection between these things, but it feels odd to list them as examples of how we optimize data storage.)

waxlamp · 2025-12-02T18:35:08Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+- open access to data to enable secondary uses of data outside the intent of the study;
+- optimized data storage and access through partnerships, compression and accessibility technologies;
+- facilities to encourage reproducible practices and publications through data standards such as NWB and BIDS;
+- a platform that is not just an endpoint to dump data, but intended to be a living repository that enables collaboration within and across labs.


Suggested change

- a platform that is not just an endpoint to dump data, but intended to be a living repository that enables collaboration within and across labs.

- a platform that is not merely an endpoint to dump data, but rather a living repository that enables collaboration within and across labs.

waxlamp · 2025-12-03T18:35:09Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+1. Openness & Transparency: Designs, discussions, and decisions are public by default.
+2. FAIR & Reproducibility: Data and code follow standards and their evolution remain open, traceable, and citable.
+3. Sustainability: Architectural and process decisions consider long-term maintainability.
+4. Inclusivity & Respect: Guided by a Code of Conduct.


There's a code of conduct file in the dandi-archive repo, but not in some of the others I sampled (dandi-cli, dandi-schema). Should that code of conduct be in this repo instead (and linked to from this item)?

waxlamp · 2025-12-03T18:39:45Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+
+Expectations:
+- Active presence.
+- Adhere to conflict of interest and bias avoidance.


This should link to the conflict of interest section (6.2 below).

Is "bias" defined anywhere?

waxlamp · 2025-12-03T18:45:11Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+- Link the associated issue.
+- Add a clear description (problem, approach, alternatives considered).
+- Major architectural changes require a design document.
+- Add or update tests.
+- Update documentation.
+- Ensure CI passes.
+- Large pull requests should be split unless justified.
+- No introduction of unreviewed secrets or credentials.
+- Verified provenance for large binary additions (discouraged in code repos).


This is fine as a kind of illustration of the sort of thing we expect from PR contributors, but some of it is so vague as to not be very useful (what is "verified provenance" for a large binary addition, and if it's discouraged, why mention it?)

Generally, the roles and requirements sections feel vague in this way. Maybe we can add language explaining that such lists "include, but are not limited to" the mentioned items.

waxlamp · 2025-12-03T18:48:12Z

docs/terms-policies/governance.md

+    - If a comment cannot be resolved, the Project Leadership would be enlisted to decide on the path forward.
+    - Approval by at least 1 listed Maintainer for that repository.
+    - 24-hour waiting period (unless addressing a critical issue or trivial issue [e.g. typos]).
+- See section below regarding updates to the Governance document.


Suggested change

- See section below regarding updates to the Governance document.

This doesn't feel like it belongs here, unless I'm missing something. What does the amendment process have to do with the merge policy?

kabilar added 2 commits August 11, 2025 16:22

Create governance document with sections 1,2,4

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Add section 3

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kabilar self-assigned this Aug 11, 2025

kabilar added 12 commits August 11, 2025 16:51

Add section 5

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Update navigation

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Add Amendments to Project Governance section

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Add Documentation section

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Add Communication section

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Add Sunset Policy section

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Add Pull Request Workflow section

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Add Decision-Making Model section

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kabilar changed the title ~~[WIP] Add governance document~~ Add DANDI governance document Sep 9, 2025

kabilar marked this pull request as ready for review September 9, 2025 16:55

kabilar requested review from CodyCBakerPhD, asmacdo, bendichter, candleindark, jjnesbitt, mvandenburgh, satra, waxlamp and yarikoptic September 9, 2025 16:56

CodyCBakerPhD reviewed Sep 9, 2025

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kabilar added 3 commits September 9, 2025 12:06

Add table of maintainers

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kabilar and others added 16 commits November 3, 2025 09:11

Update docs/terms-policies/governance.md

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Co-authored-by: Yaroslav Halchenko <[email protected]>

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Co-authored-by: Yaroslav Halchenko <[email protected]>

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Co-authored-by: Yaroslav Halchenko <[email protected]>

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Co-authored-by: Yaroslav Halchenko <[email protected]>

Merge branch 'master' of https://github.com/dandi/dandi-docs into gov…

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…ernance-doc

Update docs/terms-policies/governance.md

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Co-authored-by: Yaroslav Halchenko <[email protected]>

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Merge branch 'governance-doc' of https://github.com/kabilar/dandi-docs …

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…e instance

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yarikoptic requested a review from Copilot December 1, 2025 19:31

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		Multiple deployments of this codebase operate as separate instances, each serving distinct research communities and datasets. The DANDI Archive instance is available at https://dandiarchive.org/, and the EMBER-DANDI Archive instance is available at https://dandi.emberarchive.org/. This document governs over the DANDI Project codebase unless otherwise specified.

		Contributing code to DANDI repositories does not grant rights or access to the separate instances. Similarly, using the DANDI Archive or EMBER-DANDI Archive service does not require contributing to the codebase.

	- a platform that is not just an endpoint to dump data, but intended to be a living repository that enables collaboration within and across labs.
	- a platform that is not merely an endpoint to dump data, but rather a living repository that enables collaboration within and across labs.

Add DANDI governance document #204

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kabilar commented Aug 11, 2025 •

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