Governance Template

The SemRels governance template repository provides the baseline governance, compliance, and repository-health files used across SemRels projects.

Use it when you create a new repository or when you need to align an existing repository with the SemRels governance baseline.

What the template includes

Governance files

GOVERNANCE.md, MAINTAINERS.md, SECURITY.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md establish project expectations and ownership.

Licensing

LICENSE, LICENSES/, and .reuse/dep5 provide the Apache-2.0 and REUSE compliance baseline.

GitHub hygiene

Workflow templates, issue templates, CODEOWNERS, and pull request templates help keep new repositories reviewable and maintainable.

Every SemRels repository should include these files:

For core and multi-plugin repositories, also treat the following as required:

Copy the baseline files

Start from SemRels/semrel-template and copy the files that match your repository type.
Replace placeholders

Update values such as {{PROJECT_NAME}}, {{ORG_NAME}}, {{REPO_NAME}}, {{REPO_URL}}, and {{DEFAULT_BRANCH}}.
Enable the workflows you need

Choose the CI, Scorecard, CodeQL, DCO, and REUSE workflow templates that fit your repository.
Run compliance checks

Validate the repository locally where possible before opening your bootstrap pull request.
Protect main

After merging, enable branch protection and required status checks for the new governance workflows.

SemRels repositories use REUSE to keep licensing metadata machine-readable.

A compliant repository usually includes:

Run the REUSE linter locally:

reuse lint

Type	Use case	Baseline
Core	Main SemRels projects such as `semrel`	Full governance, DCO, REUSE, CI, CodeQL, Scorecard
Plugin collection	Multi-plugin repositories	Full governance, REUSE, CI, Scorecard
Single plugin	One plugin per repository	Minimal governance, REUSE, light CI
Documentation	Docs or specification repositories	Governance, REUSE, docs-focused CI