[Initiative]: Vendor neutrality guidance for CNCF projects

### Name

Vendor neutrality guidance for CNCF projects

### Short description

Standardize vendor-neutrality expectations for CNCF projects across governance rules, container image metadata, and infrastructure ownership.

### Responsible group

TOC

### Does the initiative belong to a subproject?

Yes

### Subproject name

Project Reviews

### Primary contact

TBD

### Additional contacts

@angellk (TOC Chair, DD finding source)

### Origin

DD finding (automated)

### Initiative description

**This initiative is a request from the TOC.** During due diligence reviews, the TOC evaluates projects against incubation and graduation criteria. When the same finding appears across multiple projects, it signals an ecosystem-wide gap that would be better addressed through standardized guidance than repeated per-project recommendations.

This finding has appeared in **24 of 42 DD reports** (57%) scanned over the last 5 years, including cncf/toc#2198 (HAMi), cncf/toc#1919 (Crossplane), cncf/toc#1468 (wasmCloud), cncf/toc#1862 (KServe), cncf/toc#1923 (OpenFGA), cncf/toc#1820 (Knative), and others. The most recent DD to surface this was [HAMi incubation DD](https://github.com/cncf/toc/pull/2198) (merged 2026-07-02).

DDs routinely flag vendor-neutrality concerns across three areas: (1) governance docs lacking written vendor-neutrality rules, (2) container images using employer-specific LABEL maintainer values or email addresses instead of project-neutral contacts, and (3) project infrastructure (websites, release pipelines, security contacts) tied to a single vendor. The [CNCF vendor-neutrality guidelines](https://contribute.cncf.io/maintainers/community/vendor-neutrality/) exist but are not operationalized into specific, checkable requirements for DD reviewers.

**Scope:** Translate the CNCF vendor-neutrality guidelines into actionable requirements for projects at each maturity level. Cover governance documentation (written vendor-neutrality rules), container image metadata (OCI annotations, project-neutral contacts), infrastructure ownership (domains, CI/CD, release signing), and website content (commercial product links, sponsor visibility).

**Timeline:** TBD

### Deliverable(s) or exit criteria

- [ ] Guidance document: vendor-neutrality requirements by maturity level
- [ ] Container image metadata template (OCI annotations, Dockerfile LABEL patterns)
- [ ] Vendor-neutrality checklist for DD reviewers
- [ ] DD checklist item update — PR to incubation and graduation application templates

### Tracking document for meeting and progress

TBD

Start with the CNCF vendor-neutrality guidelines and the cited due diligence reports to identify recurring requirements. Define maturity-level guidance covering governance, container image metadata, infrastructure ownership, and website content, then update the DD application templates. Done means the guidance document, metadata template, reviewer checklist, and template update are complete.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.