# CNCF Project Archiving Process v1.0

Open source projects have a lifecycle and there are times that projects become inactive due to a variety of reasons. There are also cases where a project may no longer want to be supported by the TOC, or the TOC may no longer wish to recommend the use of a project.

## Archiving Criteria

When voting on a proposal to archive a project, TOC members may wish to consider whether the project continues to meet the criteria for CNCF acceptance. The TOC may also look at activity levels in the project (https://all.devstats.cncf.io/d/53/projects-health-table?orgId=1), although it is important to note that there is a difference between a mature project that doesn't get much attention any more but is stable, versus a project that is inactive.

## Voting Process

To archive a project:

* A proposal must be put forth to the TOC repo
* The TOC will inform the project maintainers, CNCF End-User community and wider community of all archiving proposals
* The proposal must remain open for at least 2 weeks of discussion after the maintainers are informed.
* A vote must be finalized with 2/3 approval from the TOC

## Archiving Process

What does archiving for a CNCF project mean?

* CNCF will no longer provide support for the project via service desk
* CNCF will list archived projects online
* Trademarks and domain names of archived projects are still hosted by the CNCF and the Linux Foundation
* CNCF can provide services such as documentation updates to help transition users.
* Other CNCF marketing activities will no longer be provided for the project

## Reactivating an Archived Project

Any project can be reactivated into CNCF by following the normal project [proposal](https://github.com/cncf/toc/blob/main/process/project_proposals.md) and/or [sandbox](https://github.com/cncf/toc/blob/main/process/sandbox.md) process.