Community Specification gives open-source projects a repository-based way to develop a technical specification with explicit licensing, patent, governance, and due-process rules. A team can start with the official template, define the specification’s scope, establish contribution and review practices, and develop the document in version control. It can prepare a specification for possible submission to a standards body, but it does not automatically make the document a formal or international standard.
What Community Specification is—and when it fits
Community Specification is a process and set of repository materials for developing technical specifications using tools and practices familiar to open-source projects, including Git. Its aim is to let a project begin with repository-based collaboration while incorporating standards-oriented legal, intellectual-property, governance, and due-process provisions. The official repository describes it as a way to start specification development much like an open-source project.
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It may fit a project whose contributors can work in a Git-based environment and want to formalize an interoperable technical description, with the possibility of a later standards-track transition. It is not a substitute for a receiving standards organization’s procedures. The Linux Foundation webinar, recorded November 15, 2022, frames the approach for projects developing specifications from open-source codebases and seeking documentation that can meet criteria for a standardization track.
Examples named in Linux Foundation guidance
Linux Foundation best-practice guidance names SPDX, SLSA, Sigstore, OpenVEX, FINOS FDC3, and LF Energy TROLIE as examples of projects using the process. This is an illustrative list, not an adoption census or proof that each project uses identical repository files or governance settings. See the Community Specifications guidance.
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How to start a repository
The getting-started guide describes two setup routes: create a new repository and include the official Community Specification files, or clone the Community Specification repository. In either case, the working group fills in project-specific information and develops the specification in that repository.
- Choose a repository structure. Create a dedicated specification repository or clone the official repository as the starting point. If the project has multiple specifications, keep each one in its own repository.
- Define the scope in Scope.md. Scope sets the working group’s boundaries and the reach of patent coverage. Draft it carefully: a very narrow scope may exclude functionality the group needs, while a scope that is too broad can discourage participation.
- Complete notices and code licensing. Add code-of-conduct contacts to Notices.md. Identify the license for any source or sample code included with the specification. The guide gives MIT as the default source-code license and says the project may select another open-source license.
- Set up contributor onboarding. The guide recommends enabling a contributor license agreement bot, such as EasyCLA or cla-bot, so contributors sign the Community Specification CLA before contributing.
- Draft and review the document. Use the Community Specification Template and develop the specification through the repository’s version-control workflow, with the group’s contribution and review practices in place.
Where possible, keep specification and implementation code in separate repositories so each can be licensed for its own purpose. The official guide and repository contents can change, so confirm current files and instructions in the official repository when setting up.
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How governance and approval work
The Community Specification policy assigns distinct responsibilities to maintainers, editors, and participants. Maintainers organize the work, determine whether consensus has been reached, and coordinate appeals. Editors make sure the text reflects group decisions and follows the applicable format and content guidance. Participants are people who have contributed under the Community Specification License.
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Decisions are consensus-based. Unanimity is preferred but not required: a maintainer weighs the dominant view and the nature of support and objections in good faith, then documents evidence of consensus. A participant can appeal a decision through an issue or pull request; the policy calls for a written response within a reasonable time.
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The policy’s minimum due-process provisions include open participation for people directly and materially affected, no undue financial barriers, safeguards against dominance by a single interest, an aim for balanced interests, good-faith harmonization with existing standards, prompt consideration of written views and objections, and publicly available process documents. These requirements make written procedures and active facilitation part of the work, not an afterthought.
From proposal to approved specification
The policy describes a progression from a participant-proposed pre-draft to a draft approved by the working group, then to an approved specification once the scope objectives are met. The maintainer publishes the approved document in a manner agreed by participants, with terms included for public versions.
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Moving the work to another standards-development organization is optional. The working group must approve a submission, and the receiving organization controls its own procedures; Community Specification does not itself confer formal standards status.
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Specification licensing is not code licensing
The Community Specification License applies to specification work and similar materials, not to the project’s implementation code. The license text includes copyright grants and patent-license terms for implementations, as well as procedures for patent exclusions and withdrawal notices. Source code remains subject to the separate license selected for it; the license text says MIT applies if no source-code license is included.
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This distinction matters because a specification is a blueprint that may be implemented independently in many codebases. A code license governs use and modification of particular code, while specification licensing needs to address rights relevant to implementations of the described technology. The materials were developed through the Joint Development Foundation, drawing inspiration from Open Web Foundation agreements and the Alliance for Open Media Patent License 1.0.
The license is not a guarantee that a contributor’s intellectual property covers an implementation or that third-party rights are cleared. Scope drafting and license interpretation have legal consequences; use qualified project counsel rather than treating setup guidance as legal advice. Read the license text alongside the project’s chosen code license.
Decide whether the approach suits your project
- Collaboration: Contributors need to be able to work with Git-based changes and repository discussions, or the project needs to provide support for those workflows.
- Governance capacity: The group should be prepared to identify maintainers and editors, document consensus, consider objections, and handle appeals under written procedures.
- IP clarity: The team must be willing to define scope carefully, onboard contributors under the applicable agreement, and distinguish specification rights from code licensing.
- Standards destination: If formal submission is an objective, the group should plan for a later decision and the receiving organization’s separate requirements rather than assuming submission is automatic.
- Support needs: Teams that need help with standards writing, working-group facilitation, or a possible ISO path can consult the Joint Development Foundation’s resources directory, which lists material on those subjects as well as GitHub for open standards development.
The framework is designed as a middle ground between repository-based collaboration and more formal standards development. The official descriptions explain its intent and process; they do not establish that it is universally faster, cheaper, or legally sufficient for every project.
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