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Heads-up — the project is named Apache Magpie; the GitHub slug rename is still pending. The framework‘s name is Apache Magpie. The current
apache/airflow-stewardslug carriesairflowfor legacy reasons, but the framework is project-agnostic (it stewards multiple ASF project workflows, not just Airflow’s), so the working group steering it chose a name that reflects that.Magpie was selected by the founding PMC and confirmed available via PODLINGSEARCH. Three alternates were carried as historical backups during the bikeshed — Beacon, Guild, and Lichen — but Magpie cleared the name search and is the final name; the alternates are no longer in play.
Until the rename lands on the GitHub side, every clone URL and CI integration still uses the legacy
apache/airflow-stewardslug — all path examples in this README and the linked docs use that slug verbatim. The rename will only change the GitHub repository slug; existing checkouts will keep working with a singlegit remote set-url.
A reusable, project-agnostic framework for ASF-project automation. Currently in development for ASF projects + Python Core team friendlies. Not a public marketplace skill — adoption is by invitation while the framework is pre-release; once we ship via the ASF release policy, the marketplace path opens up. See release-distribution for the canonical distribution mechanism we will adopt.
[!IMPORTANT] The motivation, scope, and design commitments behind this work live in
MISSION.md— the draft project- establishment proposal for an Apache Top-Level Project built on this framework. Read that for the why; this README is the how once you've decided to adopt.
The framework uses a snapshot + agentic-override adoption model. An adopter project commits a single skill — setup — into their repo. That skill manages everything else:
setup downloads the framework into a gitignored <adopter>/.apache-magpie/ directory. The snapshot is a build artefact, not source — refreshed by /magpie-setup upgrade, never committed.setup symlinks the framework's skills (security, pr-management, the rest of setup) under one canonical home — .agents/skills/ (the path shared by Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot, …) — and gives every other agent dir (.claude/skills/, .github/skills/, …) a thin per-skill relay symlink pointing back at the canonical entry. This is the same regardless of how the adopter previously organised those dirs. The symlinks are also gitignored — they ultimately target the gitignored snapshot, so they would dangle on a fresh clone before /magpie-setup runs.<adopter>/.apache-magpie-overrides/<skill>.md, committed in the adopter repo. The framework's skills consult those files at run-time and apply the overrides before executing default behaviour. See docs/setup/agentic-overrides.md for the contract.No git submodules. No marketplace. No vendored copies of framework skills. Just one committed skill (the bootstrap), a gitignored snapshot, and agent-readable override files.
Two phases — a shell bootstrap that gets setup into your repo, then the skill takeover that wires up the rest interactively.
Pick an install method and follow the verbatim recipe in docs/setup/install-recipes.md:
| Method | When to use | Reproducibility |
|---|---|---|
svn-zip | Production once ASF official releases ship to dist.apache.org (signed + checksummed) | Frozen by version |
git-tag | Pin a specific framework version | Frozen by tag |
git-branch (default main) | WIP path — track the framework‘s main directly. The default during the framework’s pre-release phase. | Tracks tip |
Each recipe is a single shell block that:
.apache-magpie/, .apache-magpie.local.lock, and the framework-skill symlinks to .gitignore..apache-magpie/ (gitignored — build artefact, not source).setup skill into the canonical .agents/skills/magpie-setup/ and adds a relay symlink to it from each agent dir you use (.claude/skills/magpie-setup, .github/skills/magpie-setup).After the recipe completes, the framework snapshot is on disk and the bootstrap skill is in your repo.
Tell your agent: “adopt apache/airflow-steward in my repo” (or invoke /magpie-setup directly). The skill walks through the rest:
.apache-magpie.lock (committed) — the project's pin: install method + URL + ref + verification anchor;.apache-magpie.local.lock (gitignored) — what this machine actually fetched + when;security, pr-management) to symlink in;.apache-magpie-overrides/ (committed) for any local workflow modifications;post-checkout git hook so worktrees re-create runtime state automatically;After the skill finishes, you commit the small, focused diff — the bootstrap skill, the .gitignore entries, the two lock files (committed + gitignore exclusion for the local one), the overrides scaffold, the doc note — and you're done. Open a PR.
Future contributors who clone your repo just say “adopt Magpie in this repo” (or invoke /magpie-setup). The skill reads .apache-magpie.lock (already committed) and re-installs to the same version your project pinned. No need to redo the manual recipe — the committed lock is the project's source-of-truth.
Every framework skill compares the gitignored .apache-magpie.local.lock against the committed .apache-magpie.lock at the top of its run. If they have drifted (project lead bumped the pin, or the local install is stale on a main-tracking adopter), the skill surfaces the gap and proposes /magpie-setup upgrade. upgrade deletes the gitignored snapshot, re-installs per the committed pin, refreshes the gitignored symlinks, and reconciles any agentic overrides — see docs/setup/install-recipes.md and skills/setup/upgrade.md for the full flow.
Four skill families ship in the framework (plus one experimental family, mentoring; one proposed family, release-management; and two meta utilities). Pick whichever families the adopter wants to use; symlinks for the picked families land in the adopter's skill directory.
The Modes column maps each family to the MISSION agent-assistance taxonomy — see docs/modes.md for what each mode means and which modes are still proposed vs. shipping today.
| Family | Modes | Purpose | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| setup | (infra) | Isolated agent setup, framework adoption + maintenance, shared-config sync. The prerequisite — at minimum the setup skill itself runs out of this family. | 6 skills, docs/setup/ |
| security | A, C | 16-step security-issue handling lifecycle — from security@ import through CVE publication, including state sync. Maintainer-only. | 9 skills, docs/security/ |
| pr-management | A | Maintainer-facing PR-queue management — triage, stats, and deep code review. | 3 skills, docs/pr-management/ |
| release-management | A, C | 14-step ASF release lifecycle, planning issue, RC cut + sign, [VOTE] thread, tally, promote, [ANNOUNCE], archive, audit log. Agent never holds the RM's signing key and never publishes the release. Proposed, spec-first, like Mentoring; skill code lands in follow-up PRs. | 10 skills proposed, docs/release-management/ |
| mentoring | Mentoring | Contributor mentoring — spec and tone guide in place; first skill (pr-management-mentor) shipping. Experimental — shape may change as adopter pilots and contributor-sentiment evaluation land. | 1 skill, docs/mentoring/ |
| issue | A, Triage | Issue lifecycle management — triage, bug reproduction, fix drafting, and backlog re-assessment against the current branch. | 5 skills |
| utilities | (meta) | Framework meta-skills: author or update skills (write-skill); print a live index of all available skills (list-skills). | 2 skills |
After the initial adoption, the same skill handles ongoing maintenance:
/magpie-setup upgrade — refresh the snapshot to a newer framework version + reconcile any overrides against the new framework structure./magpie-setup verify — read-only health check (snapshot intact, symlinks live, .gitignore correct, etc.)./magpie-setup override <framework-skill> — open or scaffold an override file for a framework skill.MISSION.md — draft project-establishment proposal: motivation, scope, design commitments, initial PMC composition target.docs/setup/agentic-overrides.md — the contract between adopters who write overrides and framework skills that read them.docs/prerequisites.md — what a maintainer needs installed before invoking any framework skill (Claude Code, Gmail MCP, GitHub auth, browser, uv, etc.).AGENTS.md — agent instructions, placeholder convention, framework conventions.CONTRIBUTING.md — for framework contributors.