The Incubator Field Guides capture situations, edge cases, and judgment calls that arise during Apache Incubator discussions. They are distilled from 5+ years of real mailing-list threads (2020-2025) and written to help mentors, PPMCs, and IPMC members recognise familiar patterns and respond consistently when similar situations occur again.

These guides are:

• based on observed Incubator experience
• anonymised and generalised
• practical rather than theoretical
• guidance, not policy

They are intended to complement existing ASF and Incubator policy by documenting how common issues have been identified, discussed, and resolved in practice.

Use these guides when:

• something feels “off” but is hard to articulate,
• a discussion starts circling familiar ground,
• mentors or reviewers need shared language to explain concerns,
• a project is encountering a less common but recurring governance situation.

The Field Guides do not introduce new requirements and do not override ASF policy. They reflect accumulated experience applied in good faith.