# Governance

FIBEMATE follows a **Benevolent Dictator for Now (BDFN)** model.

## Roles

| Role | Name | Responsibility |
|:---|:---|:---|
| **Project Lead** | Lennon (lennonhaha) | Architecture, security, release, final decision |

## Decision-Making

- The Project Lead is the sole maintainer and final decision-maker.
- All contributions are reviewed via GitHub Pull Requests.
- Security-critical changes require the Project Lead's approval.
- Contributors are encouraged to open Issues or Discussions before large changes.

## Bus Factor

**Current: 1.** The project acknowledges the single-maintainer risk.
Mitigation:
- Full source code, build scripts, and documentation are publicly available
- Cryptographic primitives are independently reproducible from FIPS 203
- Plan to recruit additional maintainers after the v3.4 open-source release (2026-08-31)

## Succession

If the Project Lead becomes unavailable, any individual or organization may fork the
repository under GPL-3.0 and continue development. The fork with the most community
support becomes the de facto successor.

## Code of Conduct

See [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) — contributors are expected to be respectful,
constructive, and assume good faith.

## Changes

All governance changes are made via Pull Request and require Project Lead approval.