Contributor Covenant

Code of conduct for contributors to free and open source software projects

The Contributor Covenant is a code of conduct for contributors to free/open source software projects, created by Coraline Ada Ehmke. Its stated purpose is to reduce harassment of minority, LGBT and otherwise underrepresented open source software developers.[1]

The Contributor Covenant is used in prominent projects including Linux, Ruby on Rails, Swift, Go, and JRuby.[2][3][4][5] Relevant signers include Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Eclipse and GitLab.[6][7]

Since its initial release as an open source document in 2014, its creator has claimed it has been adopted by over 100,000 open source projects.[8] In 2016 GitHub added a feature to streamline the addition of the Contributor Covenant to an open source project and the Ruby library manager Bundler also has an option to add the Contributor Covenant to software programs that its users create.

In 2016, Ehmke received a Ruby Hero award in recognition of her work on the Contributor Covenant.[9][10]

Following the adoption of the Contributor Covenant v1.4 by Linux in 2018 the Linux community reacted, with some applauding the change[5] and some speaking against it.[11]

In 2021 the Contributor Covenant has been folded into the Organization for Ethical Source which promotes the idea that "software freedom must be always in service of human freedom".[12]

## See also

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* Ada Initiative
* Inclusive language
* Outreachy
* Women in computing

## References

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1. ^ "Your Code of Conduct". Open Source Guides. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
2. ^ "Contributor Covenant: A Code of Conduct for Open Source Projects". Contributor Covenant. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
3. ^ Evans, Jon (March 5, 2016). "On the war between hacker culture and codes of conduct". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
4. ^ Bostick, Chad (November 4, 2016). "GitHub's Anti-Harassment Tools and the Open Source Codes of Conduct". Hello Tech Pros. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
5. ^ a b Finley, Klint (September 26, 2018). "The Woman Bringing Civility to Open Source". Wired.
6. ^ "Code of Conduct – opensource.google.com". opensource.google.com. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
7. ^ "Contributor Covenant: Adopters". Contributor-covenant.org. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
8. ^ "Contributor Covenant: A Code of Conduct for Open Source Projects". www.contributor-covenant.org.
9. ^ "2016 Ruby Heroes". Ruby Heroes. Archived from the original on June 10, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
10. ^ RailsConf (May 12, 2016). Ruby Hero Awards (Videotape). Confreaks. 3:52 minutes in.
11. ^ "Linux Has a Code of Conduct and Not Everyone is Happy With it". 19 September 2018.
12. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (27 May 2021). "The open-source Contributor Covenant is now managed by the Organization for Ethical Source". TechCrunch. Retrieved 6 October 2021.

## External links

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* Contributor Covenant main page