Yusuke is interested in adding the CODEOWNERS file to the WebKit project (see https://github.com/WebKit/WebKit/pull/1137). There have been some objections to this, the two ones I’m aware of:

- WebKit doesn’t assign “ownership” to pieces of code, so the name is unfortunate

- The last match “wins”, so if you subscribed to a generic directory early in the file, more specific matches would override that subscription

Despite these downsides, I think adding the CODEOWNERS file is good for the project for a few reasons:

- It’s a standard natively supported by GitHub, BitBucket and GitLab and will be familiar to developers

- File format is more simple than existing watchlist

- Support for groups and individuals

- No need for WebKit to host a service (other implementations of auto-CCing would require this)

I intend to work with Yusuke to land https://github.com/WebKit/WebKit/pull/1137 and start adopting CODEOWNERS on Monday absent objections that folks think overshadow the benefits of the CODEOWNERS file.

Jonathan