Skip to main content
Introducing the JSR open governance board

Introducing the JSR open governance board

Although the Deno team built JSR, the open source registry is intended not to be a Deno project, but rather an openly governed community service that benefits the greater JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem. Today marks a big shift towards that vision, as we’re thrilled to announce that JSR now has an independent governing board of directors with a governance charter.

In this blog post, we’ll introduce the new board members, share the governance charter, and provide ways to get involved and stay in the loop.

JSR board members

We are happy and grateful for these following individuals who are willing to contribute their time and expertise to JSR:

  • Evan You: creator of Vue.js and Vite, founder of VoidZero
  • Isaac Schlueter: creator of npm, cofounder of vlt
  • James Snell: Node.js TSC member, Principal System Engineer at Cloudflare
  • Luca Casonato: Software Engineer at Deno, TC39 representative
  • Ryan Dahl: creator of Node.js and Deno

The board members will meet monthly to discuss progress, set direction, and address any challenges pertaining to the JSR project.

The JSR governance charter

To articulate and align on the future direction of JSR, we have created a Governance Charter, which you can review below and on the JSR website.

1. Mission and purpose

The JSR board exists to improve the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem by providing a community service for sharing code through mechanisms such as hosting, moderation, and facilitating easy access to shared resources.

2. Board composition

  • The board will consist of 5 members.
  • Members are selected based on their ability to represent large swaths of JavaScript users, including key stakeholders such as developers, framework authors, and platform maintainers.

3. Responsibilities

The board will be responsible for:

  • Setting policy and strategy for JSR.
  • Overseeing operational matters, including securing a legal home for the organization.
  • Ensuring alignment with the mission and acting as stewards of the community’s trust.

4. Decision-making

  • Decisions will be made by majority vote.
  • A quorum is required to hold a vote, defined as at least 3 members present.

5. Term limits and roles

  • Board members do not have term limits.
  • No formal roles (e.g., chair, secretary) are defined at this time.

6. Legal organization

  • The board will function as an informal group initially.
  • Members agree to abide by board decisions.
  • One of the board’s primary goals is to establish a legal home for JSR, either by joining an existing foundation (e.g., Linux Foundation, OpenJS) or forming its own 501(c)(3) or similar entity.

7. Transparency

  • Board decisions and meeting minutes will be posted publicly on an accessible platform, such as the organization’s website or a public repository.

8. Dispute resolution

  • All disagreements among board members will be resolved through majority voting.

9. Funding

  • Funding will be provided by the Deno Company until a formal legal structure is established. In the event that Deno Company funding becomes unavailable, the board will explore alternative funding sources, including community contributions, sponsorships, or grants.

10. Charter amendments

  • The board will have the authority to revise this charter as necessary, following the same decision-making process (majority vote). Amendments will be communicated to the community through public postings, with an opportunity for review and feedback before finalization.

11. Conflict of interest policy

  • Board members must disclose any conflicts of interest that may arise and recuse themselves from decisions where such conflicts exist.

12. Onboarding and offboarding

  • New board members will be onboarded with a briefing on the charter and current initiatives.
  • A member may resign by providing written notice. Removal of a member requires a majority vote of the remaining board.

Community resources

We’re eager to kick JSR development into overdrive over the coming months, and there is plenty to work on. If you’re interested in staying up to date with JSR, helping shape the future of JSR, or contributing to JSR, we have created a dedicated JSR Discord.

We’ve also started holding bi-weekly JSR public office hours in Discord, where the JSR engineers share updates, answer any of your questions, and even help projects convert or migrate their existing SDKs to publish to JSR.

At a recent JSR office hours, the JSR engineers helped Sentry port their JavaScript SDK to JSR.

If you’re not on Discord, then you can stay up to date on JSR by following the project on Twitter, Bluesky, or even YouTube.