Signing a Contributor License Agreement or Developer Certificate of Origin

Maintainers might ask you to sign a CLA or DCO before accepting your contribution. This page explains what needs to be done.

Contributor License Agreement (CLA)

Signing a project's CLA means allowing the project to use your work (i.e. CERN's intellectual property), sometimes even donating your work by changing the copyright holder. There are two kinds of CLAs: - a personal CLA allows a single developer to contribute; - an organizational CLA allows all developers to contribute for whose work CERN would hold the copyright.

Personal CLA

You need permission of your group leader before being allowed to sign a personal CLA. The OSPO is happy to advise you and your group leader; you can reach out at Open.Source@cern.ch.

Organizational CLA

All organizational CLAs that CERN has already signed are publicly available in CDS.

To have a new organizational CLA signed:

• Contact the OSPO at Open.Source@cern.ch.
• The OSPO will consult with your group leader to verify that this is in the interest of the Organization and review the CLA text.
• The OSPO will recommend signing the CLA to the leader of the Knowledge Transfer group and will add the entry in CDS.

Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO)

DCOs are always personal. You can find an example here.

We vividly encourage contributing to open-source projects and signing their DCOs. Please discuss the DCO's signing with your group leader; feel free to point them to this section showing that no other procedure is needed for open-source contributions. In case of questions don't hesitate to reach out to the OSPO.