adopters

Document project adopters by creating or updating an ADOPTERS.md file to track organizations using your CNCF project in production. This process guides maintainers through seeding known adopters and distinguishing end-users from vendors to meet maturity criteria.

For CNCF project maturity, end-users are organizations adopting the software in production, while vendors provide related services. Distinguishing them is crucial because graduation criteria require demonstrating independent production end-users rather than vendor partnerships.

Set up a self-reporting process for adopters by establishing an issue template within your repository. This allows organizations using your project in production to easily submit their information and add themselves to the ADOPTERS.md file.

Yes, an ADOPTERS.md file is needed to demonstrate production usage for CNCF graduation. Incubating projects must show at least three independent production end-users, and maintaining this documentation provides the required evidence for maturity evaluation.

Track organizations using your open source project by maintaining a dedicated ADOPTERS.md file. This approach standardizes documentation, distinguishes end-users from vendors, and sets up issue templates for self-reporting to ensure records remain current.