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Kyle Mathews

Founder @ GatsbyJS. Likes tech, reading/writing, founding things. Blogs at bricolage.io.

1 min read · April 6th 2018

Introducing the Gatsby RFC Process

We’re adopting an RFC (“request for comments”) process for contributing ideas to Gatsby.

Inspired by React, Yarn, Ember, and Rust, the goal is to allow Gatsby core team members and community members to collaborate on the design of new features. It’s also intended to provide a clear path for ideas to enter the project:

  • Create an RFC document detailing your proposal.
  • Submit a PR to the RFC repository.
  • Incorporate feedback into the proposal.
  • After discussion, the core team may or may not accept the RFC.
  • If the RFC is accepted, the PR is merged.

RFCs are accepted when they are approved for implementation in Gatsby. A more thorough description of the process is available in the repository’s README. The exact details may be refined in the future.

Who can submit RFCs?

Anyone! No knowledge of Gatsby’s internals is required, nor are you expected to implement the proposal yourself.

What types of changes should be submitted as RFCs?

Generally, any idea that would benefit from additional review or design before being implemented is a good candidate for an RFC. As a rule of thumb, this means any proposal that adds, changes, or removes a Gatsby API.

Not every change must go through the RFC process. Bug fixes or performance improvements that don’t touch the API can be submitted directly to the main library.

RFCs for a new GitHub labeling system and to remove our special layout component

Coinciding with the launch of our RFC process, we’ve submitted a proposal for a new GitHub labeling system and a proposal to remove our special layout component. Both proposals have already received many valuable comments from the community that we’re incorporating into the design of the new process and API.

Both PRs are good examples of how a typical RFC should be structured. We’re excited to start receiving your proposals!

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