Core Contributor News for Sprint: Jul 31st - Aug 25th, 2026

Working Groups Core Contributors
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Core Contributor News for Sprint: Jul 31st - Aug 25th, 2026

This sprint brought mostly positive experiences. 70% of participants rated their experience as good or great, while 30% reported a neutral experience or faced some challenges.

:tada: What are we celebrating?

@farhaanbukhsh

  • The work done on Verawood and the way we are progressing.

@pdpinch

:sos_button: Who needs help?

@pdpinch

:construction: What Pull Requests (PRs) need review?

As a CC, check for PRs that are stuck and need attention. Don’t have write access? No problem! You can still help by reviewing to move things forward. Ping Axim if there are issues merging after you review.

Below is a list of stalled PRs that need urgent attention. These are just some of the many PRs that require immediate review and action. In addition, there are several Draft PRs that need attention to move forward. Please take a moment to review and update them as needed so they don’t remain blocked. Thank you!

Stuck waiting for review

Draft PRs: Require review and updates to move forward:

Find a full list of PRs ready for review here, or focus on edx-platform PRs that need attention.

:memo: What are the Working Groups up to?

Working Group Latest Updates
BizDev No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2026-04-02 Partnership development Meeting
Build-Test-Release (BTR) Verawood was released 5 weeks later than planned, mainly due to sandbox instability and testing delays. The retrospective highlighted the need for better testing, E2E automation, and a more flexible release cadence. For Willow, CBE and Pathways are currently at risk, and the team is exploring a hybrid release approach with individual readiness dates. E2E testing is progressing toward Playwright, with initial development targeting Verawood and automated testing against main planned. Latest meeting notes → 2026-08-24 BTR Meeting Minutes
Governance WG The Contributions Review Spring Cleaning Hackathon concluded on June 30 with 21 contributors and 28 open PRs remaining; final results have not yet been published. The Single Responsible Person Principle (#160) was also revisited. Early feedback suggests the current process is working well, with the main bottlenecks being unresponsive PR authors and limited accessibility reviewers, rather than issues that automation would directly solve. Last meeting notes → June 22 to July 6, 2026 — Open edX Governance WG
Core Product The group reviewed the Product Proposals Database and discussed the future cadence of the Learner Engagement WG. Due to team changes and shifting priorities, the group plans to move to a quarterly sync for now. The main focus has been breaking the broader gamification proposal into smaller, incremental initiatives, starting with improved profiles and avatars, which is currently in development. Latest meeting notes → 2026-08-24 Core Product Meeting Notes
Data No current updates available. Next meeting 07-22-2026. Last meeting notes → 2026-04-08 Meeting notes
Deprecation The Named Release Planning WG is currently tracking three key topics for Willow: whether Mongo forums will be deprecated, the current status of the Library v1 deprecation, and the React 18 upgrade, including whether it is currently waiting on the remaining legacy frontend deprecations. Last meeting notes → DEPR Meetings Notes (2026)
Documentation No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2026-02-04 Docs WG
Educators No current updates available. Latest meeting notes → 2026-04-27 Educators
Frontend The Frontend Working Group decided that CBE (Competency-Based Education) features will be built within frontend-app-authoring rather than as a new MFE, with a focus on creating reusable components that can be refactored later. The group also discussed frontend-base improvements, including Datadog configuration support and UTM parameter persistence, with both expected to be incorporated into the shared frontend infrastructure. Latest meeting notes → 2026-07-30 Frontend Working Group Meeting Notes
Large Instances The Large Instances Working Group continued discussions around the needs and challenges of supporting large Open edX deployments. The group focused on identifying operational considerations, improving scalability and reliability, and ensuring that the platform can better support organizations with high-volume usage. Discussions also highlighted the importance of sharing experiences from large operators and identifying common issues that could inform future platform improvements. Overall, the meeting helped surface areas for further investigation and coordination as the community continues to strengthen support for large-scale deployments. Latest meeting notes → Large Instances Meeting Notes 2026-08-05
Maintenance The meeting focused on Python modernization and release/versioning strategies across Open edX. Several modernization PRs are now ready for review, including updates to uv, pyproject.toml, Python semantic release, and trusted publishing. The group also discussed whether openedx-platform should adopt semantic versioning—or potentially calendar versioning—to help frontend applications identify backend capabilities and compatibility. For frontend releases, the team reviewed the proposed branching and publishing strategy and considered CalVer as a way to make version age clearer to operators, while noting that breaking changes would still need to be communicated through release notes. Latest meeting notes → 2026-08-06 Meeting notes
Marketing The August 19 agenda focused on AEO planning, award submissions, and market development activities for the remainder of 2026. The team will review and update the OptimizationTracker, refine the award submission strategy, and coordinate participation in key events including UNESCO Digital Learning Week, EDUCAUSE, the THE Arab Universities Summit, and the Global Digital Health Forum. The agenda also includes sponsorship planning for CBExchange and OEB Global, along with evaluating potential sponsorship opportunities at FICCI Higher Education Summit, Bengaluru Tech Summit, and DIDAC India. Last meeting notes → Agenda, Aug 19th, 2026
Mobile No current updates available. Latest meeting notes → Agenda, 2026-01-30
Technical Oversight Committee The Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) reviewed several strategic initiatives aimed at strengthening the Open edX ecosystem, including REST API standardization, Playwright-based end-to-end testing, and efforts to position Open edX as a viable university LMS through the proposed Open edX Campus initiative. The committee also highlighted growing adoption opportunities in digital public infrastructure, discussed improving interoperability with Student Information Systems through standardized APIs rather than building an SIS, and emphasized the importance of security, community contributions, and long-term sustainability to support future platform growth. Latest meeting notes → TOC Meeting Notes - 2026-07-08
Translation No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2026-03-18 Translation WG Meeting
Design No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2026-03-18 - Design Working Group Meeting

:date: What events are coming up?

  • Join a working group meeting using the community calendar.

:rocket: What are we working on?

:handshake: Want to participate in Core Contributor Governance?

  • Participate to the work of the Contributor Coordination Working Group. The group works asynchronously using the working group tasks board, and we’d love your input there. You can review and comment on existing threads there, or post your own topic to discuss with the group by creating your own ticket on the board (“+ Add item” in “New topics and issues to discuss”).

:speech_balloon: Anything to add?

Share your thoughts in Slack (openedx.slack.com) or the comments below!Please read How To Get Help (click the link in the preview pane to the right) before asking a question, thanks, then delete this text!