planifest Github Codeowners Management
Overview
Use this skill to keep CODEOWNERS enforceable, low-noise, and aligned with actual maintainer responsibility.
Scope Boundaries
- Use this skill when the task matches the trigger condition described in
description. - Do not use this skill when the primary task falls outside this skill's domain.
Shared References
- CODEOWNERS pattern guidance:
references/codeowners-patterns.md
Templates And Assets
- CODEOWNERS change plan:
assets/codeowners-change-plan-template.md
Inputs To Gather
- Repository ownership map by criticality and change frequency.
- Team boundaries, backup owners, and staffing constraints.
- Required reviewer policy for sensitive paths.
- Recent PR routing pain points (over-review, no-owner paths, stale owners).
Deliverables
- CODEOWNERS update plan with rationale.
- Ownership gap/overlap report.
- Verification results for routing behavior.
- Maintenance plan for owner lifecycle changes.
Workflow
- Capture proposed changes in
assets/codeowners-change-plan-template.md. - Map high-risk paths to explicit primary and backup owners.
- Resolve overlap and wildcard precedence issues.
- Validate with lint scripts and sample PR routing.
- Publish changes with ownership maintenance rules.
Scripts
- Lint CODEOWNERS:
python3 scripts/lint_codeowners.py --path .github/CODEOWNERS --policy team
- Enforce required patterns:
python3 scripts/lint_codeowners.py --path .github/CODEOWNERS --policy team --require-pattern '/.github/workflows/*'
- GitHub semantics mode (without strict team catch-all ordering):
python3 scripts/lint_codeowners.py --path .github/CODEOWNERS --policy github
Quality Standard
- Critical paths always have active owners and backup coverage.
- Wildcards do not mask sensitive-path ownership.
- Rules are maintainable and avoid unnecessary reviewer fan-out.
- Routing behavior matches expected maintainers on real PR samples.
Failure Conditions
- Stop when critical paths are left without accountable owners.
- Stop when CODEOWNERS rules cannot be validated by lint and sample checks.
- Escalate when staffing gaps prevent enforceable ownership policy.