December Monthly Updates

3 Dec, 2024

Vish Abrams

Welcome to our first monthly update! We’re excited to share our progress and what’s coming next.

What We’ve Been Working On

In addition to some minor formatting fixes, our initial focus has been on getting organized for larger updates. Here are the key activities:

• KubeCon: We announced the open sourcing of Twelve-Factor at KubeCon and had our first in-person office hours meetings. Thank you to everyone who joined our discussions there! If you missed the announcements, you can watch our two brief keynotes: * The Twelve-Factor App, Rebooted * Honoring the Past to Forge Ahead
• Concepts and Examples Separation: We’ve started separating core concepts from examples to make the manifesto more accessible and clear (issue #13). This is an essential first step in making further updates easier to navigate.
• Planning for Larger Changes: We’ve already started planning for some larger changes. Details are provided in the next section.

Current Proposals Under Discussion

After separating the concepts and examples, we’re focusing on some bigger structural and conceptual updates. We’re discussing these in proposals to gather community feedback and ensure we get the details right:

1. Adding a Factor for Workload Identity: This proposal introduces a new factor to address workload identity and improve security practices (issue #9).
2. Modifying the Config Factor: We’re proposing updates to the configuration factor to allow for the use of mounted volumes, expanding how configuration data can be handled in cloud environments (issue #4).
3. Updating the Logging Factor: This proposal aims to expand the logging factor to include telemetry, reflecting modern observability practices (issue #3).

What’s Next

Our next steps will be:

• Continuing the Separation Work: We’ll finish separating concepts from examples as part of laying a solid foundation for further updates, with a pull request for each factor.
• Updating the Examples: After completing the separation of concepts, we will update the examples to reflect modern technology.
• Introducing Labeling or ‘Facets’ for Factors: We are starting an early discussion about introducing labeling, or ‘facets,’ for factors to help better organize and categorize the work.
• Working on Larger Rewrites: Once the initial restructuring is complete, we’ll begin rewriting specific factors to better reflect the evolving needs of cloud-native applications. These changes will be developed collaboratively through the proposal process.

Community collaboration has been fantastic, and we’re excited to build on this momentum. Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for your continued contributions!

To stay involved, join our discussions on Discord and take part in our weekly meetings every Thursday at 8 AM PST. We’d love to have your input!