The Maintainer Manifesto is an attempt to explain the realities of open source software to the many, many people who appear to completely misunderstand it. That doesn't just refer to users of open source software -- a lot of open source authors don't understand what they've signed up for, and burn out by trying to heroically solve the world's problems for nothing.

Origins

The manifesto originated in a blog post written by Matt Palmer, in May 2024. It was extracted into a standalone site, so it could be more easily referenced, and put up on GitHub in case anyone wanted to try and "build a community".

Goals

Put simply, the aim of the Maintainer Manifesto is to clearly express the realities of open source software. By doing so, the hope is that both users and authors can make better decisions around its use and development

Adopting the Manifesto

If you feel that the Maintainer Manifesto accurately expresses your feelings, as the publisher of a piece of open source software, here's a couple of ways to let everyone know:

  1. Link to the manifesto in the software's README, perhaps in a paragraph along the lines of:

    This software is typical open source: I wrote it for me, and I released it as open source with the hope that others might find it useful. However, as the Maintainer Manifesto explains, "maintenance" is not the same as "support", so please don't expect your bug reports and PRs to get my undivided attention.

    If you are open to undertaking paid support, mentioning that in the README is highly recommended.

  2. Create a new issue in your project, titled "Is This Project Still Maintained?", and link to the manifesto in there. Pin the issue to the top of the issues list, so that it's easy for people to find.