Instructions for Maintainers

There are some guidelines maintainers need to follow. We list them here for quick reference, especially for new maintainers. These guidelines apply to all projects in the Velero org, including the main project and all other related repositories.

Please be sure to also go through the guidance under the entire Contribute section.

Reviewing PRs

• PRs require 2 approvals before it is mergeable.
• The second reviewer usually merges the PR (if you notice a PR open for a while and with 2 approvals, go ahead and merge it!)
• As you review a PR that is not yet ready to merge, please check if the “request review” needs to be refreshed for any reviewer (this is better than @mention at them)
• Review requests are managed automatically. In the main Velero repository, automation selects two reviewers from the applicable reviewer group, and CODEOWNERS requests review from the maintainer team.
• Avoid manually @mentioning maintainers for review unless the request is urgent. When doing so, explain why it needs immediate attention.
• Be familiar with the lazy consensus policy for the project.

Some tips for doing reviews:

• There are some code standards and general guidelines we aim for
• We have guidelines for writing and reviewing documentation
• When reviewing a design document, ensure it follows our format and guidelines. Also, when reviewing a PR that implements a previously accepted design, ensure the associated design doc is moved to the design/implemented folder.

Creating a release

Maintainers are expected to create releases for the project. We have parts of the process automated, and full instructions. We are working towards automating more the Velero testing, but there is still a need for manual testing as part of the release process. The manual test cases for release testing are documented here.

Community support

Maintainers are expected to participate in the community support rotation. We have guidelines for how we handle the support.

Community engagement

Maintainers for the Velero project are highly involved with the open source community. All the online community meetings for the project are listed in our community page.

How do I become a maintainer?

The Velero project welcomes contributors of all kinds. We are also always on the look out for a high level of engagement from contributors and opportunities to bring in new maintainers. If this is of interest, take a look at how adding a maintainer is decided.