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+# The Docker maintainer manual
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+
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+## Introduction
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+
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+Dear maintainer. Thank you for investing the time and energy to help make Docker as
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+useful as possible. Maintaining a project is difficult, sometimes unrewarding work.
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+Sure, you will get to contribute cool features to the project. But most of your time
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+will be spent reviewing, cleaning up, documenting, andswering questions, justifying
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+design decisions - while everyone has all the fun! But remember - the quality of the
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+maintainers work is what distinguishes the good projects from the great.
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+So please be proud of your work, even the unglamourous parts, and encourage a culture
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+of appreciation and respect for *every* aspect of improving the project - not just the
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+hot new features.
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+
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+This document is a manual for maintainers old and new. It explains what is expected of
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+maintainers, how they should work, and what tools are available to them.
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+
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+This is a living document - if you see something out of date or missing, speak up!
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+
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+
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+## What are a maintainer's responsibility?
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+
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+It is every maintainer's responsibility to:
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+
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+* 1) Expose a clear roadmap for improving their component.
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+* 2) Deliver prompt feedback and decisions on pull requests.
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+* 3) Be available to anyone with questions, bug reports, criticism etc. on their component. This includes irc, github requests and the mailing list.
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+* 4) Make sure their component respects the philosophy, design and roadmap of the project.
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+
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+
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+## How are decisions made?
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+
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+Short answer: with pull requests to the docker repository.
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+
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+Docker is an open-source project with an open design philosophy. This means that the repository is the source of truth for EVERY aspect of the project,
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+including its philosophy, design, roadmap and APIs. *If it's part of the project, it's in the repo. It's in the repo, it's part of the project.*
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+
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+As a result, all decisions can be expressed as changes to the repository. An implementation change is a change to the source code. An API change is a change to
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+the API specification. A philosophy change is a change to the philosophy manifesto. And so on.
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+
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+All decisions affecting docker, big and small, follow the same 3 steps:
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+
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+* Step 1: Open a pull request. Anyone can do this.
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+
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+* Step 2: Discuss the pull request. Anyone can do this.
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+
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+* Step 3: Accept or refuse a pull request. The relevant maintainer does this (see below "Who decides what?")
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+
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+
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+## Who decides what?
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+
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+So all decisions are pull requests, and the relevant maintainer makes the decision by accepting or refusing the pull request.
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+But how do we identify the relevant maintainer for a given pull request?
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+
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+Docker follows the timeless, highly efficient and totally unfair system known as [Benevolent dictator for life](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_Dictator_for_Life),
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+with yours truly, Solomon Hykes, in the role of BDFL.
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+This means that all decisions are made by default by me. Since making every decision myself would be highly unscalable, in practice decisions are spread across multiple maintainers.
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+
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+The relevant maintainer for a pull request is assigned in 3 steps:
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+
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+* Step 1: Determine the subdirectory affected by the pull request. This might be src/registry, docs/source/api, or any other part of the repo.
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+
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+* Step 2: Find the MAINTAINERS file which affects this directory. If the directory itself does not have a MAINTAINERS file, work your way up the the repo hierarchy until you find one.
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+
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+* Step 3: The first maintainer listed is the primary maintainer. The pull request is assigned to him. He may assign it to other listed maintainers, at his discretion.
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+
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+
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+### I'm a maintainer, should I make pull requests too?
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+
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+Primary maintainers are not required to create pull requests when changing their own subdirectory, but secondary maintainers are.
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+
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+### Who assigns maintainers?
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+
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+Solomon.
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+
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+### How is this process changed?
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+
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+Just like everything else: by making a pull request :)
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Solomon Hykes