LEAP-1: LEAP Purpose and Guidelines

Author	mjs
Status	Implemented
Created	2021-08-17

What is a LEAP?

LEAP stands for Lyra Enhancement Action Proposal, it has been adapted from the SIP (Synthetix Improvement Proposal). The purpose of this process is to ensure changes to Lyra are transparent and well governed. A LEAP is a design document providing information to the Lyra community about a proposed change to the system. The author is responsible for building consensus within the community and documenting dissenting opinions.

LEAP Rationale

We intend LEAPs to be the primary mechanism for proposing new features, collecting community input on an issue, and for documenting the design decisions for changes to Lyra. Because they are maintained as text files in a versioned repository, their revision history is the historical record of the feature proposal.

It is highly recommended that a single LEAP contain a single key proposal or new idea. The more focused the LEAP, the more successful it is likely to be.

A LEAP must meet certain minimum criteria. It must be a clear and complete description of the proposed enhancement. The enhancement must represent a net improvement.

LEAP Work Flow

Parties involved in the process are the author, the LEAP editors, the Lyra Council and the Lyra community.

Before you begin, vet your idea, this will save you time. Ask the Lyra community first if an idea is original to avoid wasting time on something that will be rejected based on prior research (searching the Internet does not always do the trick). It also helps to make sure the idea is applicable to the entire community and not just the author. Just because an idea sounds good to the author does not mean it will have the intend effect. The appropriate public forum to gauge interest around your LEAP is the Lyra Discord.

Your role as the champion is to write the LEAP using the style and format described below, shepherd the discussions in the appropriate forums, and build community consensus around the idea. Following is the process that a successful LEAP will move along.

Each status change is requested by the LEAP author and reviewed by the LEAP editors. Use a pull request to update the status. Please include a link to where people should continue discussing your LEAP. The LEAP editors will process these requests as per the conditions below.

Draft -- This LEAP is a work-in-progress.
Proposed -- This LEAP is scheduled for voting by the Lyra Council.
Approved -- This LEAP has passed community governance and is now being prioritised for development.
Rejected -- This LEAP has failed to reach community consensus.
Implemented -- This LEAP has been implemented and deployed to mainnet.

What belongs in a successful LEAP?

Each LEAP should have the following parts:

Preamble - RFC 822 style headers containing metadata about the LEAP, including the LEAP number, a short descriptive title (limited to a maximum of 44 characters), and the author details.
Simple Summary - “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Provide a simplified and layman-accessible explanation of the LEAP.
Abstract - a short (~200 word) description of the technical issue being addressed.
Motivation (*optional) - The motivation is critical for LEAPs that want to change Lyra. It should clearly explain why the existing specification is inadequate to address the problem that the LEAP solves. LEAP submissions without sufficient motivation may be rejected outright.
Specification - The technical specification should describe the syntax and semantics of any new feature.
Rationale - The rationale fleshes out the specification by describing what motivated the design and why particular design decisions were made. It should describe alternate designs that were considered and related work, e.g. how the feature is supported in other languages. The rationale may also provide evidence of consensus within the community, and should discuss important objections or concerns raised during discussion.
Test Cases - Test cases may be added during the implementation phase but are required before implementation.
Copyright Waiver - All LEAPs must be in the public domain. See the bottom of this LEAP for an example copyright waiver.

LEAP Formats and Templates

LEAPs should be written in markdown format. Image files should be included in a subdirectory of the assets folder for that LEAP as follows: assets/leap-X (for leap X). When linking to an image in the LEAP, use relative links such as ../assets/leap-X/image.png.

LEAP Header Preamble

Each LEAP must begin with an RFC 822 style header preamble, preceded and followed by three hyphens (---). The headers must appear in the following order. Headers marked with "*" are optional and are described below. All other headers are required.

leap: (this is determined by the LEAP editor)

title:

author: <a list of the author's or authors' name(s) and/or username(s), or name(s) and email(s). Details are below.>

status: < Draft | Proposed | Approved | Rejected | Implemented >

created:

* updated:

* requires: <LEAP number(s)>

* resolution: <a url pointing to the resolution of this LEAP>

Headers that permit lists must separate elements with commas.

Headers requiring dates will always do so in the format of ISO 8601 (yyyy-mm-dd).

`author` header

The author header optionally lists the names, email addresses or usernames of the authors/owners of the LEAP. Those who prefer anonymity may use a username only, or a first name and a username. The format of the author header value must be:

Random J. User <[email protected]>

Random J. User (@username)

if the email address or GitHub username is included, and

Random J. User

if the email address is not given.

`created` header

The created header records the date that the LEAP was assigned a number. Both headers should be in yyyy-mm-dd format, e.g. 2001-08-14.

`updated` header

The updated header records the date(s) when the LEAP was updated with "substantial" changes. This header is only valid for LEAPs of Draft and Active status.

`requires` header

LEAPs may have a requires header, indicating the LEAP numbers that this LEAP depends on.

Auxiliary Files

LEAPs may include auxiliary files such as diagrams. Such files must be named LEAP-XXXX-Y.ext, where “XXXX” is the LEAP number, “Y” is a serial number (starting at 1), and “ext” is replaced by the actual file extension (e.g. “png”).

LEAP Editors

The current LEAP editors are

* Michael Spain (@mjs-12)

* Dominic Romanowski (@DominicRomanowski)

LEAP Editor Responsibilities

For each new LEAP that comes in, an editor does the following:

Read the LEAP to check if it is ready: sound and complete. The ideas must make technical sense, even if they don't seem likely to get to final status.
The title should accurately describe the content.
Check the LEAP for language (spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc.), markup (Github flavored Markdown), code style

If the LEAP isn't ready, the editor will send it back to the author for revision, with specific instructions.

Once the LEAP is ready for the repository, the LEAP editor will:

Assign a LEAP number (generally the PR number or, if preferred by the author, the Issue # if there was discussion in the Issues section of this repository about this LEAP)
Merge the corresponding pull request
Send a message back to the LEAP author with the next step.

Many LEAPs are written and maintained by developers with write access to the Lyra codebase. The LEAP editors monitor LEAP changes, and correct any structure, grammar, spelling, or markup mistakes we see.

The editors don't pass judgment on LEAPs. We merely do the administrative & editorial part.

History

The LEAP document was derived heavily from the SIP Synthetix Improvement Proposal document in many places text was simply copied and modified. Any comments about the LEAP document should be directed to the LEAP editors. The history of the EIP is quoted below from the EIP document for context:

"This document (EIP) was derived heavily from Bitcoin's BIP-0001 written by Amir Taaki which in turn was derived from Python's PEP-0001. In many places text was simply copied and modified. Although the PEP-0001 text was written by Barry Warsaw, Jeremy Hylton, and David Goodger, they are not responsible for its use..." *

August 17, 2021: LEAP 1 has been drafted and submitted as a PR.

See the revision history for further details, which is also available by clicking on the History button in the top right of the LEAP.