Open Source Project Maintainer

Overview

This skill covers how to run and grow an open-source repo at L2 (team/community) and L3 (open-core / paid-SaaS). L1 solo repos skip most of this. The work splits into two halves: governance (how the repo accepts change) and release propagation (how a change becomes a published artifact that ships in lockstep downstream).

Choose branching → set changelog → write contributor policy → pick licensing
    → add funding/ownership/templates → release with per-step exit conditions

Every decision below has a concrete step list. Release steps have explicit exit conditions — move on only when the evidence for that step exists.

When to Use