Governance

April 16, 2026 · View on GitHub

The Gardener

This garden has one gardener: Null;Variant.

All design decisions, feature direction, release timing, and quality standards are determined by the gardener alone. There is no committee, no vote, no consensus process. The gardener places every stone.

The Sekimori-ishi

A sekimori-ishi is a small stone tied with rope, placed on a garden path to say: do not pass beyond here. In a traditional garden, this is a silent agreement. In this digital garden, the stones have teeth.

This garden is guarded by several such stones:

NameWhat it guards
CI / Build CheckNo broken stone enters the garden
Branch ProtectionThe main path cannot be altered without passing the gate
Signed CommitsEvery placed stone bears the mason's mark
Automated PublishingWhen a release tag is placed, the garden opens its gate
AI Review AgentsTireless apprentices that rake sand patterns day and night

The AI review agents deserve special mention. They are not gardeners — they cannot place stones or choose where paths lead. They are apprentices bound by AGENTS.md: they check sand patterns (lint, types, coverage), verify stone placement (code review), and report to the gardener. The gardener makes the final call.

Six apprentices live in the gardener's head. They have been taught to rake, but not to dream.

Decision Process

  1. The gardener decides what to build
  2. The apprentices verify it was built correctly
  3. The gardener approves and merges

For external contributions:

  1. Open an issue or pull request
  2. The apprentices will review mechanically
  3. The gardener will review aesthetically
  4. The gardener merges, or explains why the stone does not belong

Quality Standard

This garden follows the principle in our Code of Conduct:

"If it works, it's fine" is not welcome here.

Code must be correct, secure, tested, and — yes — beautiful. Every stone follows the Karesansui Architecture — intentional richness that appears minimal.

Bus Factor

The bus factor is 1. This is a personal garden, not a public park.

The garden is open source (MIT License), so anyone may fork it and start their own. But this particular arrangement of stones reflects one person's vision, and that is by design.

Contact

To reach the gardener: open an issue on this repository, or see SECURITY.md for security-related matters.

See Also