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37 changes: 37 additions & 0 deletions docs/adr/0012-open-source-and-aaif-donation-posture.md
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Expand Up @@ -32,3 +32,40 @@ projects, roadmap, OpenSSF Best Practices badge).
## Consequences
- Every public-facing claim in the README follows the three-shelf rule: agent claims here, authority claims cited.
- Sandbox's 12-month Growth clock means the proposal is filed only when two unaffiliated adopters are plausible.

## Correction, appended 2026-10-08: Sandbox requires the transfer and the charter at entry

The 2026-09-05 correction above was wrong, and the first version of the Context was right. It read the
Sandbox announcement, which summarises, instead of the policy, which governs. The governing text is
`aaif/technical-committee`, `governance/project-lifecycle-policy.md`: Sandbox was added there on
2026-07-08 (commit `d26a92cd`) and Governing Board approval on 2026-08-17 (`b021aaa8`). Its Sandbox
acceptance criteria, verbatim:

1. "Released under an OSI-approved permissive license."
2. "Have a working implementation."
3. "Have at least one actively committing maintainer, with documented intent to grow the contributor base."
4. "Provide a short written thesis (1-2 pages) covering who would use the project, what would justify
Growth graduation, and either documented early external interest or a credible argument for why the
project matters pre-adoption."
5. "Meet the standard AAIF requirements: transfer of project trademarks and other assets to the LF, and
adoption of the LF technical charter."
6. "Receive an absolute majority vote (>50%) of the Technical Committee, subject to final approval of the
Governing Board."

The same policy sets the clock: "Projects are expected to apply for Growth within twelve months; otherwise
the Technical Committee opens an Emeritus/archival discussion." Graduation needs "documented production use
by at least two unaffiliated organizations" and "commits from at least two organizations over the prior six
months, named committers, and a documented committer-acceptance process." The proposal form asks the
proposer to agree to donate all project trademarks and accounts, and names an organisation signatory for the
contribution agreement. The copy of the process under `aaif/project-proposals` predates Sandbox and is stale.

What this changes:

- Point 5 of the Decision stands, and is now concrete: the contribution agreement assigns trademarks,
domains and accounts (not copyright; Apache-2.0 and the DCO remain the inbound terms), so legal review
must cover the signatory, the list of what transfers, and the name.
- **The name.** "Trinity" is a crowded mark, with registrations and pending applications in Class 42
software and AI services. It stays the code name and the package prefix; a public mark is chosen and
cleared by counsel before any proposal or public launch.
- **The binding constraint is the twelve-month clock, not the paperwork.** The Consequence above already
said the proposal waits until two unaffiliated adopters are plausible; that is now the policy's own bar.
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