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book/introduction.md

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 # Introduction
+
+Grapevine is a [Matrix][matrix] homeserver that was originally forked from
+[Conduit 0.7.0][conduit].
+
+[matrix]: https://matrix.org/
+[conduit]: https://gitlab.com/famedly/conduit/-/tree/v0.7.0?ref_type=tags
+
+## Goals
+
+Our goal is to provide a robust and reliable Matrix homeserver implementation.
+In order to accomplish this, we aim to do the following:
+
+* Optimize for maintainability
+* Implement automated testing to ensure correctness
+* Improve instrumentation to provide real-world data to aid decision-making
+
+## Non-goals
+
+We also have some things we specifically want to avoid as we feel they inhibit
+our ability to accomplish our goals:
+
+* macOS or Windows support
+  * These operating systems are very uncommon in the hobbyist server space, and
+    we feel our effort is better spent elsewhere.
+* Docker support
+  * Docker tends to generate a high volume of support requests that are solely
+    due to Docker itself or how users are using Docker. In attempt to mitigate
+    this, we will not provide first-party Docker images. Instead, we'd recommend
+    avoiding Docker and either using our pre-built statically-linked binaries
+    or building from source. However, if your deployment mechanism *requires*
+    Docker, it should be straightforward to build your own Docker image.
+* Configuration via environment variables
+  * Environment variables restrict the options for structuring configuration and
+    support for them would increase the maintenance burden. If your deployment
+    mechanism requires this, consider using an external tool like
+    [`envsubst`][envsubst].
+* Configuration compatibility with Conduit
+  * To provide a secure and ergonomic configuration experience, breaking changes
+    are required. However, we do intend to provide a migration tool to ease
+    migration; this feature is tracked [here][migration-tool].
+* Perfect database compatibility with Conduit
+  * The current database compatibility status can be tracked [here][db-compat].
+    In the long run, it's inevitable that changes will be made to Conduit that
+    we won't want to pull in, or that we need to make changes that Conduit won't
+    want to pull in.
+
+[envsubst]: https://github.com/a8m/envsubst
+[migration-tool]: https://gitlab.computer.surgery/matrix/grapevine-fork/-/issues/38
+[db-compat]: https://gitlab.computer.surgery/matrix/grapevine-fork/-/issues/17
+
+## Project management
+
+The project's current maintainers[^1] are:
+
+| Matrix username | GitLab username |
+|-|-|
+| `@charles:computer.surgery` | `charles` |
+| `@benjamin:computer.surgery` | `benjamin` |
+| `@xiretza:xiretza.xyz` | `Lambda` |
+
+We would like to expand this list in the future as social trust is built and
+technical competence is demonstrated by other contributors.
+
+We require at least 1 approving code review from a maintainer[^2] before changes
+can be merged. This number may increase in the future as the list of maintainers
+grows.
+
+## Expectations management
+
+This project is run and maintained entirely by volunteers who are doing their
+best. Additionally, due to our goals, the development of new features may be
+slower than alternatives. We find this to be an acceptable tradeoff considering
+the importance of the reliability of a project like this.
+
+---
+
+[^1]: A "maintainer" is someone who has the ability to close issues opened by
+      someone else and merge changes.
+[^2]: A maintainer approving their own change doesn't count.