Open by Design: ROOST's Approach to Safety Tool Development

This season has been one of meaningful growth for ROOST. With our partners, we’ve transitioned three previously proprietary products into open-source projects and have been steadily building a home for the safety engineering community. As we move into this next phase, you’re now seeing more of the “open development” side of our work. Here’s an overview of how we think about open development at ROOST, how we operate today, and what you can expect as we continue building in the open.

Open source development

For many people, “open source” primarily refers to a specific software license type—one that makes ROOST projects free to study, use, modify, and redistribute. But open source has long held that user freedoms are protected not only by how we share our technical work, but by how we build it: transparently, collaboratively, and in the open. Our work reflects this ethos. ROOST projects are intended as shared goods, and we approach them as a collaborative effort with contributors, users, and partners who are collectively shaping the tools.

Because ROOST is building solutions that address multiple components of safety systems, our technical roadmap will be made public and open for feedback from early adopters and contributors.

Decision making in open source

No two open source (OSS) projects handle decision making in exactly the same way. Because anyone can contribute, those who consistently show up and do the work naturally gain influence over a project’s direction. At the same time, having transparent documentation about who makes decisions during conflicts—and how contributors can grow into decision-makers—creates stability.

Borrowing a phrase from open-source advocate Sarah Novotny, ROOST uses “minimum viable governance” (MVG) for our open source projects. We’ve intentionally kept formal structures light, adding only what’s necessary for a project’s current maturity. As projects grow, we add governance in response to clear needs, not aspirations.

The ROOST Technical Design Committee

One structure that plays a core role in ROOST is the Technical Design Committee (TDC), a group that will be made up of technical practitioners representing different user personas, perspectives, and specialties. The TDC brings community feedback and real-world expertise into decisions about technical direction and steps in when consensus isn’t reached at the contributor level.

The initial TDC has been recruited by ROOST, based on demonstrated community engagement and domain experience, and will be introduced in the near future. The process for selecting future TDC members will be developed with the committee toward the end of its initial term—MVG in action.

OSS development in practice

If you think of open source as “one large virtual team,” the day-to-day feels familiar. What would normally be internal conversations—discovery, iteration, debate, and refinement—happens publicly.

Establishing a vision

• Technical leads propose an overall direction (as reflected in the ROOST roadmap).
• Project stakeholders provide feedback, ranging from small adjustments to identifying gaps or surfacing new ideas.
• Feedback is incorporated, consensus is built, and a shared direction emerges.
• All of this happens in public documents, comment threads, and open meetings.

Building the pieces

• Each ROOST project (such as Coop and Osprey) plans its work based on the shared vision and the specific feedback it receives from its users.
• Issue prioritization, implementation discussions, and design debates happen in visible issue trackers, and open chat channels.

When can I use ROOST tools?

Modular components of the ROOST stack are available now. Osprey v0.1 is live on GitHub, and contributors are actively refining functionality toward the project’s v1.0 target. Early users have already begun filing issues, proposing features, and contributing improvements, which is exactly the feedback loop we hoped to spark.

I’m not using ROOST tools—should I participate?

Yes. Critical contributions come from people who haven’t adopted the tools yet but know what they would need. Input from potential users helps shape functionality before foundations harden. You can open a GitHub Issue describing ideal behavior or requirements—or, if you’re unsure where to start, drop into our Discord and we’ll help route your idea.

What if I want to stay private?

We understand the realities of working on difficult safety problems, and we’ve already made design choices to protect contributor safety. For example, ROOST does not require contributors to associate public contributions with an email address—something atypical in open source but necessary here.

A few things to know:

• You can participate pseudonymously on GitHub and Discord.
• You never need to disclose your employer when describing use cases; generalized context is welcome and often wise.
• You can also share feedback directly with ROOST staff, and we can post de-identified Issues on your behalf with your permission (though we don’t push code for contributors).

Staying secure while staying open

To those new to open source, it can feel unsettling that anyone can inspect or contribute to code—especially in domains involving sensitive workflows. ROOST projects follow well-established security best practices, including mandatory code review and trusted build infrastructure.

And while ROOST code is visible, visibility alone doesn’t give malicious actors what they would need to circumvent trust and safety systems. ROOST tools provide infrastructure—detecting, labeling, routing—not insight into platform-specific signals or decision logic. We’ll share more detail in an upcoming explainer.

Building our tools and community together

As we continue building in the open, we’re already seeing a growing group of practitioners, researchers, and builders shaping ROOST with their feedback and field experience. Open source development only works when people invested in the tools take part, and we are fortunate that this is already happening across ROOST projects. The work ahead requires a diverse set of voices and perspectives, and we’re committed to making space for all of them. If you’re interested in contributing, following our progress, or simply learning more, we invite you to jump in and help shape a safer internet alongside a community that is actively building together today.