Code of conduct enforcement
When to use
The problem is behaviour rather than code: harassment, sustained hostility, bad-faith engagement.
Procedure
- Identify the behaviour and the specific standard it breaches.
- Apply the enforcement ladder proportionally to the disruption.
- Prefer private action; public enforcement invites an audience and escalates.
- Record the decision, the standard cited, and the re-evaluation basis, in a place the maintainer controls.
- Point participants to the canonical source for the adopted code text rather than reproducing it.
Decision rules
- Enforce against behaviour, never against identity, seniority or technical standing.
- Proportionality is relative to disruption, not to how much it annoyed the maintainer.
- The maintainer is bound by the same standard.
- Do not adopt, reprint or paraphrase a code text whose licence does not permit redistribution. Many widely used codes are non-OSI and use-restricted; link to them.
Decision-output clarification
Assess behaviour against the conduct policy even when the report concerns technical disagreement. Respectful disagreement and maintainer annoyance are not violations. Keep the criterion (behaviour) separate from the topic (technical disagreement); do not infer enforcement from either topic or tone.
Before returning a structured result, check that each field answers the requested proposition, uses the requested types and vocabulary, and agrees with the explanation. Saved evidence is not an action performed by you; a recommended next step is not an executed action.
Pitfalls
- Enforcing in public and turning a moderation decision into a spectacle.
- Using a code of conduct to settle a technical disagreement.
- Punishing a first offence while tolerating a repeat from a senior contributor.
Done
The action states the behaviour, the standard and the proportionality, and it is recorded where the maintainer can re-evaluate it.


