Core Contributor News for Sprint: July 19th - Aug 1st, 2025

Working Groups Core Contributors
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Core Contributor News for Sprint: July 19th - Aug 1st, 2025

This sprint brought mostly positive experiences. 71% of participants rated their experience as good or great, while 29% reported a neutral experience or faced some challenges.

:tada: What are we celebrating?

@Marta_Demchyna

  • In collaboration with Natalia Vynogradenko at Raccoon Gang, we came up with the idea and designed the Core Contributor badge. This badge can be used on CC social media profiles or corporate websites to increase community visibility and recognize the contributions of Core Contributors. I believe it will be shared with the CCs shortly, if it hasn’t been already.

    I’m also currently exploring the potential for Open edX to support alternative screen formats. At the moment, I’m focusing on CarPlay views and designing an ideal-case concept for a possible app.

:sos_button: Who needs help?

If there’s anything you’re stuck on, need help with, or would like input on, please feel free to leave a comment in this topic. We’re here to support you!

: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.

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 The BizDev WG meeting focused on post-conference alignment, with AI-driven personalization emerging as the top strategic priority. Key discussions included reforming the proposal submission process, integrating third-party AI tools, and supporting content creation. Action items aim to improve collaboration, visibility, and developer experience across the community. Latest meeting notes → 2025-07-30 Partnership development Meeting
Build-Test-Release (BTR) The team is wrapping up Teak.1 by cleaning up retrospective items, prioritizing next steps, and managing test failures. Planning for Teak.2 is underway, with a tentative cut date of September 8. Ulmo release prep has begun, including role confirmations and a community call for contributors. Latest meeting notes → 2025-08-04 BTR Meeting Minutes
Contributor Coordination The working group decided to adopt an asynchronous-first model, retiring monthly meetings in favor of ad-hoc calls when necessary. Last meeting notes → 2025-05-13 CC Working Group Meeting Notes
Core Product The status of product subgroups was reviewed; several appear inactive and may be archived, while others remain active with regular meetings. New subgroups were proposed to align overlapping product proposals from multiple teams, especially around Catalog, Learning Paths, and Programs. An update to the Product Review Process was discussed, aiming for a more efficient structure without adding unnecessary recurring meetings. Last meeting notes → 2025-07-15 Core Product Meeting Notes
Data No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-05-07 Meeting notes
Deprecation A DEPR was proposed to deprecate the master branch, starting with frontend repos like frontend-app-authn. A new next branch will act as the main development branch, with features backported to master if needed. This shift reflects that master is no longer stable or production-ready, and full deprecation will be tracked per feature via individual DEPR tickets. → DEPR Meetings Notes (2025)
Documentation No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-04-17 Docs WG
Educators No current updates available.
Frontend No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-06-05 Frontend Working Group Meeting Notes
Large Instances Networking issues at eduNEXT were resolved by updating outdated AMIs; Picasso and other automation tools were discussed as collaboration opportunities. There was consensus on moving away from Discovery Service and aligning efforts on new solutions like Learner Pathways and Tutor-compatible tooling. Last meeting notes → Large Instances Meeting Notes 2025-07-08
Learning Tools (LTI) The group is seeking a volunteer to certify the Teak release for LTI Advantage via 1EdTech, requiring access to a Teak admin and credentials. There’s renewed focus on improving LTI usability—particularly around dynamic tool registration, reusability, and deep linking. Maria Fernanda emphasized the need to decouple LTI components and explore Open edX as a provider tool, referencing ongoing issues and collaboration opportunities. Last meeting notes → 2025-07-22 Meeting notes
Maintenance A new PR was opened to enable the make upgrade workflow for forks, improving support for external contributions. The team discussed granting AppHelix access and permissions similar to arbi-bom, using the Core Contributor (CC) plan as a framework, though confirmation from 2U is still pending. Upcoming topics include the React 19 and Node 22/24 upgrades, as well as a cross-repo linting discussion focused on __init__.py files. Last meeting notes → 2025-07-24 Meeting notes
Marketing No current updates available. Last meeting notes →Agenda, May 21st, 2025
Mobile Bug fixes are actively being contributed and triaged, with Ivan Stepanok leading several improvements. Zeitlabs, Schema, and Raccoon Gang are collaborating on a Learning Academies solution, debating plugin vs. separate startup models—technical discovery is underway alongside an upcoming ADR. ASU’s mobile pilot sparked renewed focus on offline capabilities, with a need to assess Sumac’s features vs. current platform state and explore feasibility of backporting enhancements. Last meeting notes →Agenda, August 08th, 2025
Technical Oversight Committee No current updates available. Last meeting notes → TOC Meeting Notes - 2025-05-14
Translation No current updates available. Last meeting notes → 2025-04-16 Translation WG Meeting
UX/UI The session included quick updates on current UX/UI efforts, including a centralized database of design projects (Sam Daitzman) and a proposal to reintroduce the search bar in the Learner Dashboard (Chelsea Rathbun). @Edward Byun shared progress on a Platform UX issue tracker, while @Santiago Suarez proposed a multi-question problem editor to enhance authoring flexibility. Last meeting notes →2025-06-12 - UX/UI Working Group Meeting

:date: What events are coming up?

: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!