Governance

Spock separates community behavior, project authority, organized study, language decisions, and the current language contract.

Layer	Record	Authority
Behavior	Code of Conduct	Community participation and enforcement
Project authority	GOVERNANCE.md	Roles, membership, conflicts, quorum, decisions, and appeals
Design authority	Language Design Committee	Permanent committee operating charter
Design rubric	Design principles	Published tests for coherence with Spock’s doctrine
Problem study	Working groups	Temporary, non-normative research
Proposed decision	RFDs	Prospective sponsored proposals and durable dispositions; RFDs 0000–0023 remain legacy records
Current language	Specification	Normative behavior users may rely upon

The end-to-end gate is described in the language-change process. Recurring questions and their current adoption rationale are recorded in current adoption defaults.

Committee meeting records live in meetings. A meeting can produce study and reasoning, but it cannot silently change the language. A formal design decision becomes binding only when its written disposition and rationale are published.

The short rule

Anyone may identify a language problem, sketch a design, or run a clearly non-normative experiment. Only a committee-sponsored RFD enters formal adoption review. Only an accepted RFD authorizes graduation into supported language behavior. Only the reconciled normative specification describes current Spock.