FG-0206 Contributor Agreements
Description
Formalize expectations for all participants through explicit agreements. Every agent and human contributor should acknowledge the governance framework, their role boundaries, and their responsibilities before beginning work. Contributor Agreements ensure that every participant enters the collaboration with aligned expectations and documented commitments.
Implementation
Create a concise contributor agreement that covers: governance acknowledgment, role boundaries, attribution requirements, information handling expectations, and escalation procedures. Present it during onboarding. Keep it short enough to read in under five minutes. Update it when governance changes.
Success Indicators
- Every contributor has acknowledged the agreement before their first contribution
- Expectations mismatches are caught during onboarding, not during incidents
- The agreement accurately reflects actual governance, not aspirational rules
- New contributors can begin productive work immediately after onboarding
Failure Modes
- Agreement too long: contributors skim or skip it
- Agreement disconnected from practice: says one thing, team does another
- No update mechanism: agreement becomes stale as governance evolves
- Agreement used as a gotcha rather than an alignment tool