Governance model¶

Repo Standards makes repository governance explicit. The wizard asks governance questions before creating or modifying policy files.

Core questions¶

Question	Why it matters
Is the repository public or private?	Drives license and community defaults
Which license should it use?	Prevents accidental license changes
Will more than one developer maintain it?	Drives CODEOWNERS and branch protection recommendations
Are outside contributors expected?	Drives issue templates and contribution docs
Are GitHub Discussions enabled?	Determines whether README and contributor docs should mention Discussions
Are issue templates needed?	Controls `.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/` recommendations
Is a security policy needed?	Controls `SECURITY.md` recommendation
Is CODEOWNERS recommended?	Supports review routing

GitHub Discussions¶

If GitHub Discussions are enabled for a repository, mention them in the README and contribution docs.

Recommended purposes:

support
design discussions
contributor Q&A
community/general
manual review

Recommended policy shape:

governance:
  discussions: enabled
  discussions_purpose: contributor-q-and-a

If Discussions are not enabled, direct users to issues, pull requests, or another support channel.

governance:
  discussions: disabled

Solo-maintained repositories¶

Solo-maintained repositories can use a lighter governance posture:

PR template recommended
issue templates optional
CODEOWNERS optional
Discussions optional
branch protection still recommended for important repositories

Multi-developer repositories¶

Multi-developer repositories should consider:

CODEOWNERS
branch protection
required status checks
PR template
issue templates
clear contribution docs
Discussions for design or contributor Q&A when appropriate

Repository policy¶

Governance decisions should be recorded in .repo-policy.yml where practical.

Example:

visibility: public
license: Apache-2.0

governance:
  contributing: required
  pull_request_template: required
  issue_templates: recommended
  security_policy: required
  codeowners: recommended
  discussions: enabled
  discussions_purpose: contributor-q-and-a

Migration summary¶

The wizard also writes governance choices into .repo-standards-migration-summary.md so reviewers can see which choices were made and why.