apache / apache/seatunnel

[Discussion][Connector-V2] Establish connector certification levels and acceptance test templates

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Description

## Background
SeaTunnel has a large and growing connector ecosystem, but users and maintainers still lack a shared way to judge connector maturity.

Over time, this becomes a governance problem:
- users cannot tell which connectors are safe for production use
- reviewers do not have a shared maturity baseline
- connector quantity can grow faster than connector quality

## Problem to solve
We need a practical way to communicate connector maturity and to tie that maturity to repeatable acceptance checks.

## Proposal
Introduce connector certification levels together with acceptance test templates.

Suggested first-delivery goals:
- define a small number of certification levels
- define what each level means
- provide reusable acceptance test templates for each level
- pilot the model on a small set of high-usage connectors

Example level direction for discussion during implementation:
- Basic
- Stable
- Production
- CDC Production

## Scope
Phase 1 should stay intentionally lightweight:
- define the levels
- define the corresponding acceptance template expectations
- run a pilot on a small number of connectors

## Non-goals
- do not force every connector to reach Production immediately
- do not turn the system into a heavy scoring framework
- do not make this a documentation-only badge exercise

## Suggested validation
- validate that trial connectors can be classified consistently
- validate that each level maps to a concrete test template
- validate that reviewers can use the templates to evaluate maturity more quickly and more consistently

## Acceptance criteria
- each certification level has a clear meaning
- each level has at least one reusable acceptance template
- at least a small pilot set of connectors is classified using the new model
- the result is usable by maintainers and users, not only by docs authors

## Are you willing to submit a PR?
- [ ] Yes I am willing to submit a PR!

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by reviewing the connector ecosystem and the proposed certification levels, then define lightweight level meanings and reusable acceptance templates; done means a small pilot classifies connectors consistently and maintainers and users can use the results.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
testing, tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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