---
title: "Governance"
description: "How the mcpdesc project is run — roles, decision-making, and how to take part. Summary of the project's v0.2 governance model."
source: "https://mcpdesc.org/docs/governance/"
---

The `{mcpdesc}` project is an independent open source initiative, led by its maintainers and open to contributions from the wider community. This page summarizes how the project is run; the full model lives in the [GOVERNANCE.md](https://github.com/mcpdesc/.github/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md) document.

## Roles

* **Contributors** propose, discuss, or submit improvements — code, docs, specification feedback, schemas, examples, issue triage, design input, or tool integrations. Contributions are licensed under Apache-2.0\. Contributors **retain copyright**; there is **no CLA**, no copyright assignment, and no DCO sign-off.
* **Maintainers** steward the project: they review and merge changes, guide the roadmap, maintain the specification, publish releases, curate the tools catalog (see [Add a tool](/docs/add-a-tool)), and keep licensing, attribution, and documentation coherent. Contributing does not by itself confer maintainer status.

## How decisions are made

The project uses a **lightweight, consensus-oriented** model. Most changes are decided through normal issue and pull-request review — accepted when there is sufficient agreement, no unresolved blocking concern, and at least one maintainer approval.

**Larger changes** — to the MCP Description specification, breaking schema changes, major tooling, governance/licensing rules, branding, or public positioning — call for broader feedback before merging, with the decision and rationale documented.

## Specification changes

The MCP Description specification is one of the project’s core assets. Proposed changes should explain the problem, describe the change with examples, consider compatibility with existing `mcpdesc` documents, state whether they are additive, compatible, or breaking, and update schemas, docs, and examples. Breaking changes are rare, clearly documented, and released with an appropriate version bump per semantic-versioning principles.

## Relationship to Cisco-originated work

The initial MCP Description specification and related tools originated at Cisco DevNet and were released as open source through Cisco Open. The `{mcpdesc}` project builds on that open-licensed foundation as an independent initiative — **not** a Cisco product, service, or official Cisco standardization effort. See [Attribution](/docs/attribution).