diff --git a/src/content/considered/funding-manifest-urls.md b/src/content/considered/funding-manifest-urls.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..734d6eb1 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/considered/funding-manifest-urls.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "/.well-known/funding-manifest-urls" +date: "2026-09-23" +reason: too-early +revisit: "Documented use by independent consumers, such as another funder, a package registry or a forge, showing that domain-verified funding metadata provides a useful website convention beyond the currently documented FLOSS/fund tooling." +sources: + - title: "Well-Known URIs registry" + url: "https://www.iana.org/assignments/well-known-uris/well-known-uris.xhtml" + publisher: "IANA" + - title: "Well-Known Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)" + url: "https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8615.html" + publisher: "IETF" + - title: "funding.json — an open manifest schema for open source projects" + url: "https://fundingjson.org/" + publisher: "FLOSS/fund" + - title: "FLOSS/fund directory" + url: "https://dir.floss.fund/" + publisher: "FLOSS/fund" +--- + +`funding-manifest-urls` has been a **provisional** entry in the IANA Well-Known URIs registry since 2 April 2025, with `info@floss.fund` as change controller and `fundingjson.org` as its reference. It is not the funding manifest itself. The manifest — `funding.json`, a JSON document describing who maintains a project, what it needs money for, and how to send it — lives at an ordinary URL of the publisher's choosing. The well-known file is the proof of control that sits underneath it: a plain-text list, one URL per line, saying "these manifests are allowed to speak for this domain". A manifest hosted on `example.com` that claims a project at `project.net` is unverified until `project.net/.well-known/funding-manifest-urls` names it back. + +This is a general funding metadata format for open-source projects. It can describe funding needs, payment channels and provenance independently of a particular grant application. The specification lists real publishers, including F-Droid, Python and OpenStreetMap, and links to the FLOSS/fund directory and validator as consumers. Those examples establish publisher adoption and a working use of the format. They do not establish that only grant applicants publish it, or that other funders cannot use it. + +For this specification, the remaining question is whether the convention has enough independent consumer adoption to recommend it to websites seeking funding. The sources reviewed document FLOSS/fund's tooling but do not establish broader consumption; that is an evidence limit, not proof that no other reader exists. We therefore record it as **too early** for a standalone recommendation. Documented use by another funder, a forge or a package registry would make the case stronger. Any future page would apply to project funding sites, rather than requiring every website to publish a manifest.