releasing.md

Releasing an Open Source Project 🛳️

<COMPANY_NAME> encourages you to release code as an open source project. The Release Policy details the requirements.
The following steps should be taken to release and maintain your open source project using the MIT license:

1. Register your release. Create an issue in the XXX repo to register your intended release.

2. Name your project. Check that it does not conflict with an existing project or infringe on any trademarks.

3. Include the following in the root directory. The folder with the templates is available here.

   • README.md file describing the purpose and state of the repository. A good README file is often critical to project success. This is also a good place to put any top-level and important information for newcomers to your project.
   • LICENSE.txt file with the MIT license text. Include <COMPANY_NAME> above the copyright statement.
   • CONTRIBUTING.md file with instructions on contributing to your project.
     • Additionally, consider providing technical guidance like build instructions, coding conventions, or a project roadmap in the CONTRIBUTING.md file.
   • CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md file
   • Consider a SUPPORT.md file
   • SECURITY.md file including instructions that enable users to privately report security vulnerabilities found in your project.

4. Prepare the code for release.

   • Code license. MIT is the preferred license - other licenses must be cleared with legal.
   • Remove sensitive assets.
     • Remove any reference in the code to internal or confidential information, including internal paths, tools, codenames, proprietary fonts, internal telemetry and email aliases.
     • Remove any trademarks or product icons.
     • If any sensitive content or commit messages are found in commits, consider squashing the revision history.
     • To preserve sensitive history or if you wish the public repo to have zero non-commit history, rename the private repo and create a new blank slate repo with the intended public name and any commit history intended to be public.
   • Add copyright and license headers (optional)
     • It is best practice in many ecosystems to include a copyright statement at the top of each file. Here is one you can use at <COMPANY_NAME>:

   // SPDX-FileCopyrightText: <COMPANY_NAME> and others
   // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

5. Third-party Open Source. If your repository vendors third-party OSS which is not managed/vendored by a dependency manager (e.g. RubyGems), describe its use and its license in a NOTICE file. When in doubt, consult with legal.

   • Best Practices.
     • Use consistent code conventions, clear function/method/variable names, and a sensible public API.
     • Keep clear comments, document intentions and edge cases.
     • Ensure the distribution mechanism is as convenient, standard, and low-overhead as possible (RubyGems, Homebrew, Bower, Maven, NuGet, etc.)
     • GitHub Actions based continuous integration that integrates with the status or checks API is ready to be enabled when the repo is made public.
     • Use inclusive language in your project.

6. Publish the code. Once your registration is complete, create an issue in XXX repo and request that your GitHub repository is public.

7. Going forward. Ensure:

   • Staffing. Ensure at least one team member is committed to managing community interactions merging pull requests, giving feedback, releasing new versions.
   • Maintaining. Make your life easier as an open source maintainer, from documenting processes to leveraging your community.
   • Build welcoming communities. Build a community that encourages people to use, contribute to, and share your project.