Governance

Governance policy for tq contract documentation.

Reference ownership and review

Reference pages are contract pages and require stricter ownership and review than narrative docs.

Reference section	Canonical source(s)	Required reviewer focus
docs/reference/cli.md	crates/tq-cli/src/cli.rs + docs/reference/cli/options-manifest.json + cargo run -p tq-docsgen --locked -- generate cli	CLI contract shape, flag semantics, and generated table sync
docs/reference/configuration.md	Runtime config model + docs/reference/config/examples-manifest.json + cargo run -p tq-docsgen --locked -- generate config	Key/schema correctness, precedence behavior, and strict validation semantics
docs/reference/exit-codes.md	CLI/runtime exit behavior	Exit contract stability and compatibility impact
docs/reference/rules/index.md and docs/reference/rules/*.md	docs/reference/rules/manifest.json + cargo run -p tq-docsgen --locked -- generate rules	Rule ID stability, severity defaults, and per-rule contract clarity
docs/developer/versioning.md	Project versioning policy for user-visible contracts	Correct classification of breaking vs non-breaking changes

Use this review baseline for any PR that touches docs/reference/**:

• Include at least one reviewer for the touched contract surface.
• Keep one canonical source of truth; link instead of duplicating contract text.
• For generated references, update the source manifest and commit regenerated outputs in the same PR.

Rule and severity change policy

Rule additions and default severity changes are contract changes.

• MUST update docs/reference/rules/manifest.json in the same PR as runtime changes.
• MUST include added_in and update behavior_changes for affected rules.
• MUST regenerate rules docs via cargo run -p tq-docsgen --locked -- generate rules.
• MUST classify release impact using versioning policy.
• MUST summarize contract impact in CHANGELOG.md.