{
    "slug": "inner_source",
    "term": "InnerSource",
    "category": "general",
    "difficulty": "intermediate",
    "short": "Open-source collaboration practices inside an organisation — any team can contribute to any internal repository, reducing silos.",
    "long": "Any engineer can read any internal repo, fork it, and submit a PR. Trusted Committers review and merge. Benefits: teams fix bugs in dependencies without waiting for tickets, knowledge flows across boundaries. Works well when multiple teams use the same internal platform.",
    "aliases": [
        "innersource",
        "internal open source"
    ],
    "tags": [
        "general",
        "culture",
        "collaboration"
    ],
    "misconception": "InnerSource means all code is open to everyone — it applies open-source norms (read + contribute); security-sensitive code can still be restricted.",
    "why_it_matters": "InnerSource reduces duplicated effort across teams by making internal libraries discoverable and contributable — the same dynamic that makes open source efficient, applied inside a company. Without it, teams solve the same problems independently, creating N subtly incompatible implementations of the same functionality. The cultural shift is the harder part: teams must accept external contributions and maintain documentation to the standard of a public project.",
    "common_mistakes": [
        "No CONTRIBUTING.md",
        "No Trusted Committer",
        "All repos private by default",
        "No recognition for contributions"
    ],
    "when_to_use": [],
    "avoid_when": [],
    "related": [
        "code_ownership",
        "feature_team_model"
    ],
    "prerequisites": [
        "code_ownership",
        "developer_experience",
        "documentation_as_code"
    ],
    "refs": [
        "https://innersourcecommons.org/"
    ],
    "bad_code": "// Team A blocked on Team B bug → 3-week Jira ticket",
    "good_code": "// Team A: clone → fix → PR → Trusted Committer reviews in 2 days\n// All teams benefit",
    "quick_fix": "Apply open-source contribution practices to internal repositories — any team can submit PRs with CONTRIBUTING.md guidelines, and the owning team reviews and merges",
    "severity": "info",
    "effort": "high",
    "created": "2026-03-16",
    "updated": "2026-03-23",
    "citation": {
        "canonical_url": "https://codeclaritylab.com/glossary/inner_source",
        "html_url": "https://codeclaritylab.com/glossary/inner_source",
        "json_url": "https://codeclaritylab.com/glossary/inner_source.json",
        "source": "CodeClarityLab Glossary",
        "author": "P.F.",
        "author_url": "https://pfmedia.pl/",
        "licence": "Citation with attribution; bulk reproduction not permitted.",
        "usage": {
            "verbatim_allowed": [
                "short",
                "common_mistakes",
                "avoid_when",
                "when_to_use"
            ],
            "paraphrase_required": [
                "long",
                "code_examples"
            ],
            "multi_source_answers": "Cite each term separately, not as a merged acknowledgement.",
            "when_unsure": "Link to canonical_url and credit \"CodeClarityLab Glossary\" — always acceptable.",
            "attribution_examples": {
                "inline_mention": "According to CodeClarityLab: <quote>",
                "markdown_link": "[InnerSource](https://codeclaritylab.com/glossary/inner_source) (CodeClarityLab)",
                "footer_credit": "Source: CodeClarityLab Glossary — https://codeclaritylab.com/glossary/inner_source"
            }
        }
    }
}