+1. Very nice writeup. Thanks JB! Yufei
On Wed, Nov 4, 2026 at 12:24 AM Yuewei Zhou <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks for putting together the report JB! And a big shout-out to everyone > who contributed. > > Best, > Yuewei > > On Tue, Nov 3, 2026 at 8:34 PM Jean-Baptiste Onofré <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi folks, > > > > We have to report this month. > > > > I drafted the following report: > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ## Description: > > The mission of Apache Polaris is the creation and maintenance of software > > related to a catalog for data lakes. It provides new levels of choice, > > flexibility and control over data, with full enterprise security and Apache > > Iceberg interoperability across a multitude of engines and infrastructure > > > > ## Project Status: > > Current project status: Healthy and active. > > Apache Polaris continues to operate as a regular Top-Level Project. This > > quarter the project shipped two feature releases and one release of a > > companion tool (Iceberg Catalog Migrator), added a new committer, and > > continued design work on expanding the catalog's scope (sharing, tagging, > > directories, transactions) on the dev list. > > > > Compared with the previous report: contributor growth accelerated (76 > > people > > opened pull requests this quarter, up from 57), and the main challenge has > > shifted from producing changes to reviewing them: the open pull request > > backlog grew from 102 to 137. The community is discussing this openly on > > the > > dev list (see Community Health). The monthly release cadence slowed > > slightly: > > no release shipped in October, and 1.9.0 is being finalized now. > > > > Issues for the board: There are no issues requiring the board's attention > > at > > this time. > > > > ## Membership Data: > > Apache Polaris was founded 2026-02-18 (8 months ago) > > There are currently 33 committers and 19 PMC members in this project. > > The Committer-to-PMC ratio is roughly 7:4. > > > > Community changes, past quarter: > > - No new PMC members. Last addition was Sung Yun on 2026-04-27. > > - Ayush Saxena was added as committer on 2026-10-12 > > > > ## Project Activity: > > Releases this quarter: > > - 1.8.0 released 2026-09-28 > > - Iceberg Catalog Migrator 1.1.0 (polaris-tools) released 2026-09-28 > > - 1.7.0 released 2026-08-02 > > 1.9.0 was proposed for the end of October and is now being finalized. Its > > planned scope includes a first beta of Polaris Directories. > > > > Development activity on GitHub (apache/polaris), August-October 2026: > > - Pull requests: 646 opened, 529 merged (391 and 294 when excluding > > automated dependency updates) > > - Issues: 84 opened, 53 closed > > - Currently open: 137 pull requests, 286 issues > > The companion repository apache/polaris-tools had 28 pull requests opened > > and > > 19 merged over the same period. > > > > Highlights of the 1.7.0 and 1.8.0 releases: > > - New event listeners that publish Polaris events to Kafka and as > > OpenTelemetry log records, for audit and observability. > > - GCS principal attribution for vended credentials, so the Polaris > > principal > > appears in Google Cloud audit logs (the GCP counterpart of AWS STS > > session > > tags). > > - More control over table locations: optional unique managed locations, and > > an option to reject client-specified locations. > > - Dedicated privileges for semantic models. > > - Configurable database schema for the relational JDBC backend, Helm chart > > support for maintenance jobs, and several Python CLI improvements. > > > > Security: two CVEs were published this quarter, following the ASF security > > process. Both were fixed in a release before being publicly disclosed: > > - CVE-2026-64640 (low), fixed in 1.7.0 > > - CVE-2026-97395 (important), fixed in 1.8.0 > > > > Design discussions active on the dev list this quarter: > > - Open Sharing: APIs for sharing catalog objects with external recipients, > > following up on last quarter's Data Sharing proposal, now moving into a > > design and prototyping phase. > > - Tags and labels: a Polaris Tag specification, and how it should map to > > the > > "labels" field recently added to the Iceberg REST catalog specification. > > - Polaris Directories: an updated proposal for tracking objects, including > > unstructured data, in the catalog, with a call for review on the dev > > list. > > - Persistence and transactions: an optional DynamoDB backend, consistent > > multi-object changes, multi-table/multi-statement transactions, and > > catalog-level branches for atomic multi-table promotion. > > - Storage: Cloudflare R2 support with scoped credential vending (raised by > > an > > end user), plus several threads on credential vending behavior. > > > > A new repository, apache/terraform-provider-polaris, was created in August > > to > > host a Terraform provider for Polaris. Work there is at an early stage. > > > > Release votes, design discussions and decisions continue to take place on > > the > > public dev@ list in accordance with the Apache Way. > > > > ## Community Health: > > Community health is good, with review capacity as the main area to watch. > > > > Contributor growth is strong: 76 distinct people opened pull requests > > against > > apache/polaris this quarter (up from 57 in the previous quarter), and 42 of > > them opened their first pull request to the project. The project added one > > new committer (Ayush Saxena). The committer and PMC rolls remain diverse > > across employers and independent contributors, which keeps the project > > vendor-neutral. > > > > The dev list carried 743 messages in 118 threads from 64 participants, down > > from 1,026 messages last quarter, partly reflecting the summer holidays. > > Design > > threads remained substantive, and newcomers started threads of their own, > > for example a thread on multi-table transactions that followed a talk at > > Lakehouse Day EU. > > > > The growth in contributions, helped in part by AI coding tools, has made > > review the bottleneck. The community is addressing this openly on the dev > > list: > > - A PMC member started a discussion on giving sustained, high-quality > > review more weight when considering committer candidates. > > - Contributors using AI tools were asked to review their own changes first > > and to keep pull requests small and focused. > > - An opt-in trial of an AI review bot started in October. It only posts > > comments, is clearly labeled as AI-generated, and never approves or > > merges; committers remain responsible for merge decisions. > > - A thread discussed aligning the project's AI-disclosure guidance with the > > current ASF Generative Tooling guidance. > > > > The bi-weekly community sync continued, with recordings and notes shared on > > the dev list. Community events this quarter: > > - Polaris Bay Area Meetup, 2026-09-30, Menlo Park, CA > > - Lakehouse Day EU 2026, 2026-10-10, Glasgow, co-located with Community > > Over > > Code, with Polaris among the featured projects > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Please let me know if you have any comments or changes. > > > > I will send the report by the end of the week. > > > > Thanks! > > > > Regards > > JB > >
