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Technical Rulebook for INFINITY Developers
Version: v1.0 (first public release) — see CHANGELOG.md for the version log.
Welcome to the INFINITY Rulebook for Technical Developers! This guide is designed to provide clear, comprehensive, and actionable guidelines for developing, contributing, and publishing high-quality open source code or open data to the INFINITY Ecosystem. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a newcomer to the open source world, this rulebook will help you navigate the best practices, ethical considerations, and collaborative processes that ensure the success and sustainability of our shared software ecosystem. Join us in building a robust, inclusive, and innovative community where code is not just a tool but a collaborative endeavor.
This Rulebook is managed by the Technical Board of the INFINITY EU project, led by Lyndon Nixon (Storypact GmbH). Changes to the rulebook need agreement by the Technical Board. Proposals for changes can be submitted to nixon@storypact.com.
Table of contents
- Core principles
- Codeberg glossary
- Code development and testing
- Code documentation
- Software and data management
- Semantic layer development and documentation
- Becoming part of the INFINITY ecosystem
- Ethical guidelines
Core principles
All technical contributions must follow these core principles.
Openness
All contributions must be open source or open data unless explicitly approved otherwise.
Transparency
Development processes, design decisions, and version histories must be publicly visible.
Reproducibility
Anyone should be able to rebuild, run, and verify a project using the provided instructions.
Security by Design
Security must be embedded into the architecture and development lifecycle.
Interoperability
All components should integrate smoothly with the INFINITY Ecosystem.
Long-Term Sustainability
Projects should be maintainable and well-documented.
Codeberg glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Container | A higher-level grouping in the INFINITY Ecosystem (e.g. a Project) that brings together the components belonging to one research activity, rather than being a single artefact itself. |
| Repository | A Codeberg project space holding a component’s (or container’s) code, data and documentation, including the annotation file(s) that describe it. |
| Component | A single artefact — a dataset, piece of software, application, report, ontology, etc. — that is annotated and made discoverable as part of the INFINITY Ecosystem. |
| Ecosystem | The complete, interlinked set of components and containers, across all INFINITY repositories, that together make up the INFINITY research and software network. |
Further terms will be added here as the rulebook evolves.
AI usage declaration
See AI_USAGE.md for the policy on what AI systems may and may not do with this repository’s contents, and ai.txt for the machine-readable version.
Citation
If you reference this rulebook, please cite it. See CITATION.cff for a machine-readable citation.
Repository contents
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
| LICENSE | Licence terms |
| CONTRIBUTING.md | How to propose changes to the rulebook |
| MAINTAINERS.md | Ownership and roles (Champion, deputy) |
| CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md | Behavioural expectations for contributors |
| CHANGELOG.md | Notable changes per release |
| SECURITY.md | How to report vulnerabilities |
| SUPPORT.md | How to request help or report issues |
| AI_USAGE.md / ai.txt | AI usage and access policy |
| codemeta.json | Machine-readable metadata |
| CITATION.cff | Machine-readable citation |
| component.md | INFINITY Ecosystem component annotation |
Credits
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement N. 101233051.