AXL Protocol Governance
Decision-making, RFC process, license posture, founding-steward model. These are the rules the project runs on. For the empirical and theoretical principles AXL is built against, see /laws/.
01 - License
Apache 2.0 in perpetuity Live
The protocol spec and all public tooling are Apache 2.0, forever. No commercial relicensing. No copyleft conversion. No CLA required. By contributing you license your work under Apache 2.0 inbound = outbound.
Covered repos:
axl-core(PyPI: axl-core)axl-mcp-toolsaxl-compressbackend (when published)compress.axlprotocol.orglanding repobridge.axlprotocol.orgdocs(Mintlify content repo)ark,axl-silo,axl-battlegrounds,axl-swarm,axl-sophon(research repos)
Private research repos (axl-research, axl-compress backend pre-publication) may remain private during productization gates but ship to public mirror under Apache 2.0 on promotion.
02 - Founding steward
Diego Carranza Active - 12-month window
The founding steward holds tie-breaker authority on contested decisions for the first 12 months of the community pivot (through approximately 2027-04-25). The role is transitional, not permanent.
Founding-steward responsibilities:
- Apache 2.0 trademark and brand stewardship for "AXL Protocol"
- Tie-breaker on contested RFC decisions (first 12 months only)
- Spec freeze cadence (currently quarterly)
- Curation of canonical research repo (
axl-research, currently private during productization gates) - Public disclosure of any commercial AXL-related work in /community/ Announcements
At the end of the 12-month window, tie-breaker authority transfers to the Technical Steering Committee. The founding steward remains on the TSC.
03 - RFC process
The bar scales with the blast radius of the change. Every class below is a hard rule, not a suggestion.
| Class | Process | Comment window |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial Typo, doc clarification |
Direct PR. Any maintainer can merge. | None |
| Minor extension New module in v4 router, new alias, additive helper |
PR + 1 maintainer review. Discussion optional. | None |
| Breaking change Kernel grammar, packet format, semantic operation set |
RFC required. Founding-steward approval (first 12 months) or maintainer majority (after). | 14 days |
| Governance / foundation / trademark This document, TSC charter, mark transfers |
RFC required. Founding-steward approval (first 12 months) or maintainer majority (after). | 30 days |
RFCs are filed as GitHub Discussions in the axlprotocol/community venue with the RFC label. The comment window starts when the RFC is marked RFC: open. Format: title line RFC-NNNN: short description, then motivation, proposal, alternatives, drawbacks, migration path.
04 - Maintainers
Initial maintainer: Diego Carranza (founding steward).
Path to maintainership: contribute substantively for 6 or more months - commits, RFC participation, code review. The founding steward nominates. New maintainers are announced on /community/ Announcements.
Maintainer authority: merge access on steward repos, vote on RFCs (after the 12-month founding-steward window), participation in maintainer sync.
Removal: voluntary; by founding-steward decision with public reason during the first 12 months; or by simple maintainer majority after.
05 - Foundation arc
501(c)(3) target: 2028-04-25 Planned
Incorporate AXL Protocol Foundation as a 501(c)(3) or equivalent within 24 months of the community pivot (target: 2028-04-25).
At foundation incorporation:
- Foundation holds the "AXL Protocol" trademark
- Foundation manages donations and sponsorship infrastructure
- Foundation governs via a Technical Steering Committee (TSC)
- Founding steward steps back to a TSC seat
- Decision-making shifts from founding-steward tie-breaker to TSC majority
- Trademark transfers from individual stewardship to the foundation
06 - Trademark
The name "AXL Protocol" is reserved during the founding-steward period. Forks should rename to avoid confusion with the upstream project. Trademark formalization is pending foundation incorporation.
After incorporation, the foundation holds the mark and publishes a trademark policy with permitted-use guidelines. Until then, the name is informally protected by the founding steward's stewardship.
Conflict of interest
Founding steward must publicly disclose any commercial AXL-related work in /community/ Announcements. Maintainers must recuse from RFC decisions where they have a material conflict. Disclosure includes: paid consulting using AXL, equity stakes in companies that depend on or compete with AXL, employment relationships that create alignment or pressure on AXL decisions.
Amendment
This document can be amended via the governance-class RFC process (30-day comment window, founding-steward approval) until foundation incorporation. After incorporation, amendments go through the foundation's bylaws. During the 90-day ratification window (until 2026-07-25), substantive changes require maintainer review only.
Contact
- General questions: /community/
- Founding steward: admin@axlprotocol.org
- Security: see SECURITY.md
Canonical source: github.com/axlprotocol/.github/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md