DEI Badging Pilot Gives Maintainers a Way to Signal Inclusive Practices

GitHub’s All In for Maintainers program is launching a pilot of the All In CHAOSS DEI Badging initiative, developed in partnership with CHAOSS. The program grew out of a Listening Tour and survey that surfaced a specific gap: maintainers have no reliable way to identify open source projects that model strong diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices. The badging pilot is designed to fill that gap.

How the Badge Works

The process starts with a single file: DEI.md. Similar to how CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md centralizes a project’s behavioral expectations, the DEI.md file documents how a project addresses four CHAOSS DEI metrics:

  • Project Access — how the project serves people with various access needs
  • Communication Transparency — how open project communications are
  • Newcomer Experience — how well the community welcomes new contributors
  • Inclusive Leadership — how the project supports diverse leadership

Maintainers write a reflective DEI.md file that expands on how their project attends to each area, commit it to the repository for community review, and provide a mechanism for community feedback.

Once the file is public, maintainers can apply for a Bronze level badge. The application triggers an automated scan of the DEI.md file for appropriate and thoughtful language, plus a deeper scan of the repository. A report of suggestions may be generated—for example, flagging slow issue response times or communication patterns that could alienate marginalized contributors. Reports go only to the maintainer who applied, after maintainership is verified. No private or personally identifiable information is accessed or exposed.

Bronze is the entry level. Silver, Gold, and Platinum tiers will incorporate additional metrics into the DEI.md file, eventually covering up to 15 distinct DEI areas by the Platinum level.

What the Badge Is Not

The initiative is not a judgment on whether a project succeeds at DEI. It is meant to prompt self-reflection—to surface questions project leadership may never have asked—and to signal to potential contributors and funders that DEI work has been done. It is also not a one-time exercise; the intent is for projects to progress through the badge levels over time.

Participating in the Pilot

GitHub is recruiting a wide range of projects from different regions to test the pilot and is seeking maintainers interested in developing metrics for the forthcoming badge tiers. Sign-up is open regardless of where a project is on its DEI journey.

The All In CHAOSS DEI Badging initiative is the second program to launch under All In for Maintainers, following the DEI Resource Hub. A third initiative, the All In Community Collaboration Project, is planned to connect smaller projects with larger, better-resourced ones to work on shared DEI challenges.