Upstream First

Phrase · Open Source

Definitions

  1. A policy or mindset that prioritizes getting changes accepted into the original project before carrying them only in internal forks or downstream distributions. It is valued because it minimizes patch drift and reduces long-term maintenance costs.

    In plain English: A policy of trying to get fixes into the original project before keeping private custom versions.

    Example: "The platform team adopted an upstream first rule after years of painful rebases against heavily patched dependencies."

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