RFCs

Substantial changes to OmniGraph — new user-facing surface, format or protocol changes, anything irreversible or cross-cutting — go through a lightweight RFC so the design is agreed as reviewable code before implementation starts. This is the public RFC track, open to anyone, including external contributors.

This complements the always-on review bar in ../dev/invariants.md: the invariants say what every change must respect; an RFC says why this particular change is worth making and how.

Two tracks, don't conflate them. This docs/rfcs/ directory is the public contribution track (anyone authors; maintainers accept). The maintainer-internal RFCs under docs/dev/rfc-00N-*.md are a separate, team-owned track for in-flight internal work. If you're an outside contributor, you're in the right place here.

When you need one

• RFC required: new query/schema/CLI/HTTP surface; on-disk or wire-format changes; a new substrate dependency; anything the deny-list in ../dev/invariants.md flags; anything irreversible ("reversibility shapes evidence demand").
• RFC not required: bug fixes for an accepted issue, and the trivial fast-lane (typos, docs, deps) — see ../../CONTRIBUTING.md.

If you're unsure, start a Discussion; a maintainer will tell you whether it needs an RFC.

Lifecycle

Discussion (incubate, get rough consensus)
      │ graduate
      ▼
RFC pull request  →  adds docs/rfcs/NNNN-title.md  (Status: Proposed)
      │
maintainer review  ──▶  changes requested / declined (PR closed, with rationale)
      │
      ▼
merged  ==  Accepted   (the merged file is the durable decision record)
      │
      ▼
Implementation PR(s)  reference the accepted RFC

• Author: anyone. Acceptance: a maintainer decision, performed by merging the RFC PR. Declining is closing it with rationale.
• The merged RFC is the accepted record — there is no separate sign-off step.
• Later reversals don't edit history: supersede with a new RFC that links back and flip the old one's Status to Superseded.

Numbering & naming

• File: docs/rfcs/NNNN-kebab-title.md, where NNNN is the next free zero-padded integer (0001, 0002, …). 0000-template.md is reserved.
• Pick the number when you open the PR; if it collides with another in-flight RFC, the second to merge bumps theirs.

Status values

Proposed (open PR) · Accepted (merged) · Declined (closed) · Superseded by NNNN · Implemented (set once the work lands, optional).

Copy 0000-template.md to start.